Meta shares jump 14% after profit triples and company announces first-ever dividend

Meta beat on earnings and revenue in its fourth-quarter earnings report Thursday and announced its first-ever dividend payment. The stock soared 14% in extended trading.

Here are the key numbers:

• Earnings per share: $5.33 vs. $4.96 expected by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv
• Revenue: $40.1 billion vs. $39.18 billion expected by LSEG
• 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
• Average revenue per user (ARPU): $13.12 vs. $12.81 expected, according to StreetAccount

Revenue jumped 25% in the quarter from $32.2 billion a year earlier, the fastest rate of growth for any period since mid-2021, as the online ad market continued to rebound. Meanwhile, the company’s expenses decreased 8% year over year to $23.73 billion, and its operating margin more than doubled to 41%, a clear sign that 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.

Meta said it will pay investors a dividend of 50 cents a share on March 26. That comes after cash and equivalents swelled to $65.4 billion at the end of 2023 from $40.7 billion a year earlier. The company also announced a $50 billion share buyback.

The after-hours market jump continues a rally from 2023, when the stock almost tripled. It hit a record in January and was up 12% this year prior to the earnings report. Based on its late-trading price, Meta’s market cap has swelled to almost $1.2 trillion.

Sales in Meta’s Reality Labs unit passed $1 billion in the quarter, though the virtual reality unit 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…