Big wins for Mark Zuckerberg
Ahead of a mammoth day for tech earnings, investors already like what they see.
Meta shares are popping in premarket trading this morning — up nearly 20 percent at 7 a.m. Eastern — after the social networking giant reported revenues above analysts’ expectations and detailed a $40 billion stock buyback plan.
Comments by Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s C.E.O., about 2023 being the “year of efficiency” also appear to be reassuring investors that Big Tech companies, which have announced a string of layoffs recently, are serious about rethinking their spending priorities in an uncertain economy.
Up today are Apple, Amazon and Google’s parent Alphabet. Shares of all three were trading higher in premarket; Nasdaq 100 futures were up 1.3 percent as of 7 a.m. Eastern. Wall Street hopes that Meta’s earnings will prove part of a wider trend that the digital advertising market, the lifeblood of so many tech firms, is beginning to rebound.
“Meta’s solid 4Q22 results/1Q23 guide is a big relief for the stock but also for the digital ad market at large, showing that ad demand has not fallen off of a cliff amid macro headwinds as feared,” analysts at Truist Securities wrote to investors on Wednesday. After falling 64 percent last year, Meta shares have risen more than 27 percent this year, based on Wednesday’s close.
Still, Meta’s bet on the metaverse remains expensive. Costs rose by 22 percent for the quarter, compared with last year, and the…
