Meta Platforms delivers upbeat guidance as Q1 results top estimates; Shares soar

Investing.com -- Meta Platforms reported Wednesday first-quarter results that topped Wall Street expectations and the social media giant provided upbeat revenue guidance amid ongoing progress to bring down costs.

Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), the parent company of Facebook rose more than 9% in after-hours trade following the report.

Facebook announced EPS of $2.20 on revenue of $28.65 billion. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated EPS of $2.02 on revenue of $27.61B.

The better-than-expected results come as the company continued to make progress on its ‘year of efficiency’ pledge in 2022 and advertising revenue grew.

Headcount fell 1% to 77,114 year-on-year in Q1.

"[W]e have substantially completed the 2022 employee layoffs while continuing to assess facilities consolidation and data center restructuring initiatives," the company said.

Advertising revenue rose to $28.10B year-on-year in Q1 from $27.00B a year earlier.

Facebook daily active users, or DAUs, rose 4% to 2.04B, while monthly active people, or MAUs, rose 2% to 2.99B.

Ad Impressions across the company’s apps jumped 26%, but average price per ad fell 17% year-on-year, pressured by increasing competition.

The company guided second-quarter revenue in a range of $29.5B to $32B, above Wall Street estimates of $29.47B.

Looking further ahead, the company sees 2023 revenue guidance in the range of $86B to $90B, adding that it continued to "expect Reality Labs operating losses to increase year-over-year in 2023."