The shares of Meta Platforms (META) increased by more than 14% on Thursday after the business released first-quarter results late on Wednesday that exceeded forecasts, raised its prediction for the current quarter, and decreased its outlook for expenses.
Growth amid Layoffs
Shares of the parent company of Facebook and Instagram are selling at $239, the highest price since late January 2022. In its release, Meta Platform—which has dubbed 2023 as its “Year of Efficiency”—stated that it has “substantially completed” its 2022 layoffs, but it will still carry out layoffs this year.
Adding to the company’s prior layoff announcement from November, Meta said this month that it will fire 10,000 employees. CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement, “We had a good quarter and our community continues to grow.
“Our AI effort is producing positive benefits for our business and apps. In order to produce better goods faster and strengthen our ability to realize our long-term vision, we are also becoming more efficient.
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In addition, the downturn in digital advertising that alarmed Meta Platform in previous reporting cycles appears to be coming to an end. The company’s stated workforce at the end of the first quarter was 77,114, down 1% from the previous year.
“Almost all employees impacted by the layoffs announced in November 2022 are no longer reflected in our reported headcount as of March 31, 2023,” Meta stated in its release. The workers who will be affected by the layoffs in 2023 are also counted in our stated headcount as of March 31, 2023.
Like Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT), Meta is doing buybacks despite layoffs. As of March 31, Meta Platform has the right to repurchase $41.73 billion of its own stock. The business bought back $9.22 billion of its shares in the first quarter of 2023.
