The parent company of Facebook, Meta Platforms, announced its first dividend and released strong financial results on Friday, resulting in the largest one-day gain in Wall Street history—a $196 billion increase in the company’s stock value.
Opening new tab stock for Meta (META.O) jumped 20.3% for the session, marking the company’s largest one-day percentage gain in a year and its third largest since making its Wall Street debut in 2012. It currently has a stock market value of around $1.22 trillion.
Meta said late on Thursday that it would be paying a 50 cent quarterly dividend and has approved an additional $50 billion in share repurchases, just days before Facebook turned 20.
Although dividends are typically linked to established, slow-growing businesses, Meta’s is the fourth that Wall Street’s most valuable technology heavyweights have to offer. The others are Apple (AAPL.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O), Nvidia (NVDA.O), and Nvidia (AAPL.O).
“The company’s desire to restore its reputation and gain greater respect is suggested by its dividend payment. However, in the end, the payment is merely symbolic,” AJ Bell financial analyst Dan Coatsworth stated.
The market capitalization boost of Meta on Friday surpassed the previous record held by Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab, which had a $190 billion surge in market value on February 4, 2022, after a stellar quarterly report. The day prior, Meta released a dire projection that caused it to lose more than $200 billion in value—the largest loss in the history of the American stock market.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who owns roughly 350 million Meta Class A and Class B shares, will get a sizable payout from Meta according to its dividend plan. The co-founder of Facebook might receive almost $175 million each quarter.
A 24% surge in the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab last year was fueled by optimism about the future of artificial intelligence, with recent record highs being reached by Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Broadcom (AVGO.O), opens new tab. With the increase on Friday, Meta’s 2024 gain is now 35%.
In its fourth-quarter earnings, the largest social media firm in the world reported 25% rise in revenue thanks to robust ad sales and a resurgence in user growth. Analyst predictions for current-quarter revenue were also surpassed by its forecast.
After cutting more than 21,000 workers since late 2022, Meta was able to treble its net income to $14.02 billion thanks to a surge in revenue and an 8% decrease in expenditures and expenses.
According to Insider Intelligence chief analyst Jasmine Enberg, “the ‘Year of Efficiency’ has paid off, with both headcount and costs dropping, and Meta exceeding our expectations for full-year 2023 ad revenue.”
Even though Meta’s dividend is little in comparison to many other firms’, it might draw in a wider range of investors, such as exchange-traded funds that specialize in dividend-paying equities.
After the stock surge on Friday, Meta’s dividend yield is approximately 0.4%. In contrast, LSEG reports that Apple has a dividend yield of roughly 0.5%, Microsoft’s is 0.7%, and Nvidia’s is less than 0.1%.
“Investors who truly seek dividends and consistent income may become drawn to this,” stated Brian Jacobsen, Chief Economist at Annex Wealth Management.
Data from Morningstar Direct shows that U.S. dividend-paying exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have assets of over $400 billion, or slightly more than 5% of the total domestic ETF universe.
Over the past ten years, Meta has been investing billions of dollars to increase its processing power for generative AI products that it is integrating into gear like its Ray-Ban smart glasses and apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
