Social media giant Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) soared after reporting stellar earnings for its fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 2023. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $5.33, which beat analysts’ consensus estimate of $4.82 per share.
Sales increased by 24.7% year-over-year, with revenue hitting $40.11 billion. This beat analysts’ expectations by $940 million.
In addition, Daily and Monthly Active Users increased by 6% and 3%, respectively. This equated to 2.11 billion DAUs and 3.07 billion MAUs.
Surprisingly, Meta announced its first-ever dividend payment of $0.50 per share, payable on March 26 to shareholders of record on February 22. This will be on top of a new $50B share buyback authorization.
Is Meta a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on META stock based on 27 Buys, two Holds, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an over 100% rally in its share price over the past year, the average META price target of $426.11 per share implies 7.94% upside potential.
