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Meta News [Feb 5, 2023]

Written by Nick | Feb 4, 2023 5:23:55 PM

Meta (META) investors saw the stock gaining +24.99% the last 5 days, which means it sits at +49.54% YTD.

Let's go through the news around Meta this week together.

1. EARNINGS BLOWOUT
2. WITHIN UNLIMITED BUYOUT
3. ANALYST CHANGES

LEGEND: Positive News | Neutral News | Negative News

 

 

 

1. EARNINGS BLOWOUT

Meta released their Q4 2022 earnings this week - and investors loved what they heard.

Highlights

  • Revenue was $32.17B (beat)
  • EPS was $1.76 (miss)
  • Family of Apps (Daily Active People) was 2.96B (+5% YoY)
  • Family of Apps (Monthly Active People) was 3.74B (+4% YoY)
  • $40 Billion share buyback authorization
  • Revenue guidance for Q1 2023 of $26-$28.5B (in-line)
  • FY 2023 total expenses $89-$95B (down from $94-$100B)
  • FY 2023 capital expenditures $30-$33B (down from $34-$37B)

This report resulted in around $100B of market cap value being added to Meta the following day - quite mind blowing - and Wall St. clearly liked the report!

The main takeaways here is that guidance was not as bad as feared, they will be lowering their investments and expenses (means more free cash flow) and they authorized a monster $40B share buyback to return value to shareholders.

The stock is now up more than 100% from its lows just a few months ago.

 

 

2. WITHIN UNLIMITED BUYOUT

Meta got the green light from a judge (ruling against the FTC) to buy Within Unlimited - a VR company.

This deal has been in limbo due to the FTC having an issue with it - but that cloud has passed and Meta won this battle.

The FTC had an issue with competition regarding this deal, since it would continue to help Meta strengthen their position when it comes to VR, but the Judge felt this was not a good enough reason to block the deal.

 

 

3. ANALYST CHANGES

RATING PRICE TARGET FIRM
Buy $200 LightShed Partners
Overweight $215 Piper Sandler
Outperform $220 Wolfe Research
Outperform $275 Evercore ISI Group
Buy $210 Stifel
Outperform $210 Bernstein
Outperform $220 Raymond James
Buy $220 B of A Securities
Overweight $260 Barclays
Buy $235 UBS
Overweight $225 JP Morgan
Buy $210 Mizuho
Buy $220 Rosenblatt
Outperform $220 Credit Suisse
Outperform $205 Baird
Equal-Weight $190 Morgan Stanley
Outperform $220 Oppenheimer
Market Outperform $210 JMP Securities
Buy $220 Canaccord Genuity
Overweight $250 Wells Fargo
Buy $215 Truist Securities
Market Perform $175 Cowen & Co.
Positive $225 Susquehanna
Buy $225 Jefferies
Buy $210 Guggenheim
Outperform $225 RBC Capital
Buy $200 Deutsche Bank
Reduce $110 HSBC
Buy $228 Citigroup

 

 

 

 

THAT'S IT FOR THIS WEEK.

We look forward to spending a few minutes with you next Sunday for some new Meta news!

Disclosure: I am a Meta Platforms (META) shareholder at the time of publishing.