Shares of Meta Platforms jumped in late trading Wednesday after the parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads posted better-than-expected results for the second quarter, along with third-quarter revenue guidance that was well ahead of Wall Street estimates.
The company also chopped its capital spending plans for 2023, but spending would increase in 2024, and it expands its work on generative AI software.
Shares were up 6% in late trading after the earnings report.
For the quarter, Meta reported revenue of $32 billion, up 11%, at the high end of the company’s guidance range, and ahead of the Wall Street consensus of $31 billion. Profits were $2.98 a share, topping the consensus forecast of $2.89.
“We had a good quarter. We continue to see strong engagement across our apps and we have the most exciting roadmap I’ve seen in a while with Llama 2, Threads, Reels, new AI products in the pipeline, and the launch of Quest 3 this fall,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.
Usage metrics were strong. Meta said “daily active people” were 3.07 billion, up 7% from a year ago—crossing the 3 billion level for the first time—while Facebook daily active users were 2.06 billion, up 5%. Monthly active people reached 3.88 billion, up 6%, while Facebook monthly actives were 3.03 billion, up 3%.
Ad impressions delivered across the company’s “family of apps” were up 34% from a year ago, Meta said, while the average price per ad was off 16%.
Head count was down 14% from a year ago, to 71,469 but headed lower—the company noted that about half of the employees affected by its recent layoff announcements were included in the June 30 total.
Revenue in the company’s Family of Apps segment was $31.7 billion, up 12%. But the Reality Labs segment, which includes VR headsets and the company’s work on the metaverse, saw revenue fall 39%, to $276 million. Family of Apps had income from operations of $13.1 billion, while Reality Labs lost $3.7 billion, widening by $900 million from the year-ago quarter.
On a call with analysts, Zuckerberg said that he is “quite optimistic” about Threads, the company’s Twitter competitor, with a focus now on user retention and improving basics. He said only after building out the user base will the company focus on monetization.
On Reels, the company’s TikTok competitor, Zuckerberg said video plays are exceeding 200 billion a day, with annualized run rate revenue now exceeding $10 billion.
Meta’s guidance topped Wall Street estimates. The company sees third-quarter revenue of $32 billion to $34.5 billion, above the analyst consensus of $31.2 billion, including a projected three percentage point tailwind from currency. The company said it now sees full year 2023 total expenses of $88 billion to $91 billion, up from a prior forecast of $86 billion to $90 billion due to legal expenses recorded in the second quarter.
Meta also said it expects 2023 full-year capital expenditures of $27 billion to $30 billion, down from a previous forecast of $30 billion to $33 billion, “due to both cost savings, particularly on non-AI servers, as well as shifts in capital expenditures into 2024.”
Meta said that it expects 2024 capital spending to grow from 2023, driven by investments in data centers and servers, in particular to support AI-related work.
The company said that 2024 depreciation expense will be higher than in 2023, due to higher infrastructure-related costs next year. And Meta reported that payroll expenses next year will grow as it adds more “higher cost technical roles.” Meta said that Reality Labs operating losses will increase in 2023 from 2022—and that losses will again “increase meaningfully” in 2024 due to product development efforts in augmented reality and virtual reality.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at eric.savitz@barrons.com
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