Meta shares jump more than 10% after net income triples in fourth quarter and company announces first-ever dividend

Meta beat on earnings and revenue in its fourth-quarter report on Thursday and announced its first-ever dividend payment. The stock jumped more than 10% in extended trading.

• Earnings: $5.33 per share. That may not compare with the $4.96 per share expected by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:
• Revenue: $40.1 billion. That may not compare with the $39.18 billion expected by LSEG

Wall Street will also be looking at these key user numbers:

• Daily active users (DAUs): 2.11 billion vs. 2.08 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
• Monthly active users (MAUs): 3.07 billion vs. 3.06 billion expected, according to StreetAccount

Meta said it has declared its first dividend, which is pegged at 50 cents. The company also announced a $50 billion share buyback.

Revenue jumped 25% in the quarter from $32.2 billion a year earlier, the fastest rate of growth for any period since mid-2021. Meanwhile, the company’s cost and expenses decreased 8% year-over-year to $23.73 billion.

The company’s operating margin more than doubled from a year earlier to 41%, a clear sign that the company’s cost-cutting measures are bolstering profitability.

Net income more than tripled to $14 billion, or $5.33 per share, from $4.65 billion, or $1.76 per share, a year earlier.

The company said that sales in its Reality Labs unit passed $1 billion in the first quarter, and recorded $4.65 billion in losses.

“We had a good quarter as our community and business continue to grow,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “We’ve made a lot of progress on our vision for advancing AI and the metaverse.”

Meta said it expects first-quarter sales to be in the range of $34.5 billion to $37 billion.