Meta Platforms released one of its best quarterly reports in years on Wednesday, giving the company a nearly 20% boost in valuation after nearly two years of stumbles.
Key Details
- Following a precipitous drop from August 2021 to November 2022, Meta is beginning to see serious gains again in its stock valuation.
- The stock soared 19.2% following its fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, announcing higher-than-expected revenues and a planned $40-billion stock buyback.
- Meta is now worth $237 billion more in market value than it was three months ago at its lowest, although it is still 50% below its peak valuation in August 2021 of roughly $380 per share.
- It is possible that the company could see another devaluation, as it did last year—losing $250 billion in market value in one of the most significant crashes in stock-market history. Some analysts are bullish about its revival though, Bloomberg reports.
Why It’s Important
As evidenced by the name change from Facebook to Meta Platforms, the company has not been doing well in the past few years. Even with billions of people using Facebook, the company that once hosted the most cutting-edge social-media platform on the planet has had to reshape its image to stay relevant in the evolving tech landscape, shifting its public focus toward the metaverse and virtual reality technologies.
Declining revenues and relevancy have hurt the company in recent months, joining other tech companies in mass tech layoffs. CEO Mark Zuckerberg affirmed this decision on Wednesday, saying the company needs to be leaner to continue operating profitably.
As Bloomberg notes, the gains came almost a year to the date since Meta experienced one of the worst stock-market crashes in its history. The raised valuation sets it as one of the best-performing stocks of the past quarter.
Notable Quote
“In future years, we will probably look back at 2023 as the sentiment shift for Meta shares,” says analyst Ross Sandler.
