NEW YORK, Feb 3: Shares of Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms Inc plunged more than 20% in after-hours trade as its fourth quarter earnings widely missed analysts’ profit expectations.
Meta’s shares fell 22.6% to $249.90 on Wednesday after the company said it earned $10.29 billion, or $3.67 per share, on a revenue of $33.67 billion in the last three months of 2021. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $3.85 per share on a revenue of $33.36 billion.
If the drop in the share price does not recover at Thursday’s market open, Facebook will stand to lose nearly $200 billion in overall market capitalization.
Meta Platforms said its fourth quarter profit suffered due to privacy changes on Apple Inc’s operating systems which made it harder for brands to target and measure their ads on Facebook and Instagram, the company’s other major social platform, used largely by youngsters.
Supply-chain disruptions triggered by the coronavirus pandemic also affected bottomline as a whole, it said.
Meta Platforms also sounded a wary note in its profit guidance for the current quarter, saying increased competition for users’ time as well as the buy-in time needed for new features like its short video offering Reels could generate less revenue. (Agencies)