Meta stock plummeted more than 16% in after-hours trading Wednesday, even as the Facebook parent company reported better-than-anticipated sales.
Meta reported revenues of $36.5 billion for the three months ended March 31, almost 30% higher than the same period last year and ahead of the expectations of Wall Street analysts surveyed by FactSet. And its profits more than doubled to $12 billion.
“It’s been a good start to the year,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the company’s earnings release Wednesday. “The new version of Meta AI with Llama 3 is another step towards building the world’s leading AI. We’re seeing healthy growth across our apps and we continue making steady progress building the metaverse as well.”
Investors didn’t seem to care about those good fortunes, though, as Meta’s share price sank 16.5% to about $412 in after-hours trading. They cared, instead, about its lukewarm second quarter outlook, which pegged expected revenues for the three months ending June 31 at $36.5 to $39 billion.
Still, Meta stock has more than doubled over the last year, up 42.5% so far in 2024 and 137.8% in the last 12 months. The company has been one of the top-performing tech stocks. It’s part of the so-called “Fab Four,” the A-listers of the “Magnificent Seven” big tech stocks that continue to rally even as Google parent Alphabet, Apple, and Tesla have fallen flat or worse.
More Meta news
Meta’s Metaverse is still losing the company billions
Meta’s new AI assistant wanted to answer users’ questions and now it’s getting on their nerves
Russia has sentenced a Meta executive to 6 years in prison
Meta just unveiled a new AI chip a day after Google and Intel
Meta’s smart glasses are getting a chatty AI update next month