In a continuing testament to Meta‘s “year of efficiency” turnaround strategy, the company once again outperformed Wall Street’s expectations in its Q3 earnings report, released on Wednesday. Meta has also stated that it has made substantial progress in implementing its cost-cutting plan, which included layoffs, following a challenging 2022.
The parent company of Facebook revealed a remarkable 23% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue with turnaround strategy, surpassing the projected $33.5 billion with a total of over $34 billion in revenue. Even more striking, Meta’s profits more than doubled compared to the previous year, boasting a net income of nearly $11.6 billion for the quarter. This stands in stark contrast to the same quarter in the previous year, when Meta’s profits had halved.
Following the report, Meta’s stock, represented by the ticker symbol META, surged by as much as 4% in after-hours trading on Wednesday. Notably, Meta’s stock had already gained 140% year-to-date as of Wednesday’s closing.
Investing.com’s senior analyst, Jesse Cohen, described the quarter as a “blowout” for Meta, noting that it marked the company’s most profitable quarter in years. Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, had unveiled the “year of efficiency” plan back in February in response to the company’s third consecutive quarterly revenue decline. The company had faced challenges, including the impact of Apple’s app privacy changes and reduced digital ad spending due to broader macroeconomic uncertainty. Additionally, Meta had been grappling with slowing user growth, intensifying competition from platforms like TikTok.
Nevertheless, Meta reported strong user growth for its suite of apps and its core Facebook platform in the Q3 report. Facebook’s monthly active users increased by 3% year-over-year, surpassing 3 billion, a notable improvement compared to the 2% growth rate in the same quarter the previous year.
