Instagram and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. posted better-than-expected results Wednesday for the first quarter thanks to strong advertising revenue on its social media platforms.
Meta's stock climbed in extended trading after the results came out.
The company earned $16.64 billion, or $6.43 per share, in the January-March period, up 35% from $12.37 billion, or $4.71 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue rose 16% to $42.31 billion from $36.46 billion a year earlier.
Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $5.23 per share on revenue of $41.34 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.
For the current quarter, Meta forecast revenue in the range of $42.5 billion to $45.5 billion. Analysts are expecting $43.84 billion.
“We’ve had a strong start to an important year, our community continues to grow and our business is performing very well,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “We’re making good progress on AI glasses and Meta AI, which now has almost 1 billion monthly actives.”
On Tuesday, Meta released a standalone AI app, called Meta AI, that includes a “discover” feed that lets users see how others are interacting with AI.
Meta shares jumped $24.20, or 4.4%, to $573.20 in after-hours trading. The stock is down about 8% year-to-date.