Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, has released its 2022 first quarter results.
The tech company’s reported a slight recovery following poor results in its 2021 fourth quarter that saw shares drop as much as 23% in after-hours trading.
Meta’s stock surged more than 17% in extended trading, CNBC reported. The total revenue rose 7% to AUD $39.19 billion (USD $27.91 billion), largely off the back of ad sales, in contrast to last year’s AUD $36.76 billion (USD $26.17 billion).
Daily active people using Facebook also rose to 1.96 billion on average for March 2022, which is an increase of 4% year-over-year, exceeding forecasts by analysts.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO, said: “We made progress this quarter across a number of key company priorities and we remain confident in the long-term opportunities and growth that our product roadmap will unlock.”
“More people use our services today than ever before, and I’m proud of how our products are serving people around the world,” he added.
Looking to the second quarter of 2022, CFO Dave Wehner forecast the total revenue to range between USD $28-30 billion.
“This outlook reflects a continuation of the trends impacting revenue growth in the first quarter, including softness in the back half of the first quarter that coincided with the war in Ukraine.
“Our guidance assumes foreign currency will be approximately a 3% headwind to year-over-year growth in the second quarter, based on current exchange rates. In addition, as noted on previous calls, we continue to monitor developments regarding the viability of transatlantic data transfers and their potential impact on our European operations, and we are pleased with the progress on a political agreement.
“We expect 2022 total expenses to be in the range of $87-92 billion, lowered from our prior outlook of $90-95 billion. We expect 2022 expense growth to be driven primarily by the Family of Apps segment, followed by Reality Labs.
Speaking on the long-term investments, such as Reality Labs, Zuckerberg noted that they will be important for success and growth over time.
“I continue to believe we should see them through. But with our current business growth levels, we’re now planning to slow the pace of some of our investments,” he added.