Meta shares fall nearly 20% after financial report release

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News/Sputnik – October 27, 2022) The value of shares in US tech conglomerate Meta (banned in Russia) fell nearly 20% after the release of the financial performance report, as shown by trading data.

Shares of Meta lost 5.6% in value to $129.82 per share on Wednesday before the company released the financial report, and fell another 19.7% to $104.3 per share after the release.

The company’s net profit for January-September fell 36.2% in annual terms and stood at $18.547 billion, while diluted earnings per share reached $6.82, down from $10.11 a year earlier. At the same time, revenue increased to $84.444 billion from $84.258 billion in 2021.

According to third-quarter results, the company’s net profit halved in annual terms to $4.

395 billion. Diluted earnings per share in July-September were $1.64, compared to $3.22 in the third quarter of last year. Revenue fell 4% to $27.714 billion, compared to the forecast of $27.57 billion.

The number of daily active users of the social network Facebook (banned in Russia) increased in annual terms by only 3% in July-September and reached an average of 1.98 billion people, while the number of users per month increased by 2% to 2.96 billion.

The company said it would bring changes to achieve more efficient operations. In particular, Meta will freeze hiring in some of its departments, as well as reduce staffing in a number of divisions. Thus, the company expects the number of employees by the end of 2023 to be approximately at the level of the previous quarter.