BuzzReport

Meta shares rose more than 4% after the company reported stronger-than-expected revenue in the first quarter and provided second-quarter guidance that was in line with Wall Street’s expectations.

Here’s how the company did, compared with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: $6.43 vs. $5.28 expected
• Revenue: $42.31 billion vs. $41.40 billion expected

Meta’s first-quarter sales rose 16% year over year while net income jumped 35% to $16.64 billion, up from $12.37 billion a year earlier.

Second-quarter sales will be in range of $42.5 billion to $45.5 billion, Meta said. Analysts were expecting $44.03 billion.

Meta said that it lowered the range of its 2025 total expenses, which will now come in the range of $113 billion to $118 billion. That figure was previously $114 billion to $119 billion.

However, Meta increased its 2025 capital expenditures to come in between the range of $64 billion to $72 billion, up from its prior outlook of $60 billion to $65 billion.

“This updated outlook reflects additional data center investments to support our artificial intelligence efforts as well as an increase in the expected cost of infrastructure hardware,” the company said in the earnings release.

Meta warned that a recent decision by the European Commission could result in a materially worse user experience for European users and cause “a significant impact” to Meta’s European business and revenue as soon as the third quarter. The company said this is the result of the EC deciding that Meta’s no-ads subscription service for European users is not in compliance with one of its regulations.

The company’s advertising revenue for the first quarter came in at $41.39 billion, ahead of Wall Street projections of $40.44 billion.

Meta’s Reality Labs unit, tasked with developing virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, posted an operating loss of $4.2 billion in the first quarter, while recording $412 million in sales. Wall Street expecting the company to log a first-quarter operating loss of $4.6 billion on sales of $492.7 million.

Daily active users rose to 3.43 billion in the first quarter, topping analyst estimates of 3.39 billion. That’s up from 3.35 billion in the previous quarter.

Meta said that its employee headcount was 76,834 as of Mar. 31, representing an 11% year-over-year increase. In February, the company laid off 5% of its workforce deemed as its lowest performers.

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