(Reuters) -Meta Platforms rode strong advertising performance to beat analysts’ revenue estimates for the first quarter and match expectations for the next quarter on Wednesday, assuaging concerns from investors over tariff-related economic growth fears.
Shares of the company were up more than 4% in extended trading
The social media company reported revenue of $42.31 billion for the first quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $41.40 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Meta expects second-quarter revenue to be between $42.5 billion and $45.5 billion, compared with estimates of $44.01 billion.
Meta reported profits of $6.43 per share, beating estimates of $5.28 per share, per the LSEG data.
It also boosted its 2025 capital expenditure plans to between $64 billion and $72 billion. CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously said the company could spend as much as $65 billion this year.
Meta lowered its total expenses forecast for the year to between $113 billion and $118 billion, from its earlier expectations of $114 billion to $119 billion.
Meta’s massive user base on its social media platforms makes it a reliable go-to for advertisers at a time when U.S. tariff-induced uncertainty has prompted companies to tighten marketing budgets and delay campaigns.
The results come as Meta faces a high-stakes trial in Washington, in which the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is seeking to unwind the company’s acquisitions of prized assets Instagram and WhatsApp.
The Menlo Park, California-based company is also fighting the perception that it may have fallen behind in the AI race, after its initial set of Llama 4 large language models, released earlier this month, fell short of performance expectations.
A day earlier, smaller rival Snap held back its second-quarter forecast and said that economic uncertainty and the Trump administration’s ending of a duty-free import loophole was affecting its ad business.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru, Kenrick Cai in San Francisco, Echo Wang in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Alan Barona and Nia Williams)
