Meta Platforms jumps as it sees sales boost amid AI spending

Meta Platforms stock (NASDAQ:META) rose sharply postmarket immediately after posting second-quarter earnings where the company beat expectations on top and bottom lines, though it noted that its spending on tech (notably including artificial intelligence) would keep inching higher.

The company posted earnings per share of $5.16, easily topping views for $4.78, and revenue of $39.07B cleared the Street’s bar of $38.31B (20% growth).

It also guided to sales in the current quarter of $38.5B-$41B, vs an expected $39.2B.

Investors’ eyes were planted on Meta’s expense guidance after the company raised spending forecasts for the year in its first-quarter earnings — and indeed it bumped the bottom end of its range, now seeing 2024 capital expenditures coming in at $37B-$40B from a previous $35B-$40B (and vs. estimates compiled by Bloomberg for $37.6B).

The company also said it should see “significant” growth in capex for 2025.

“We had a strong quarter, and Meta AI is on track to be the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year,” said founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg in his typically terse early reaction. “We’ve released the first frontier-level open source AI model, we continue to see good traction with our Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, and we’re driving good growth across our apps.”