Meta Platforms, formerly Facebook, is the latest casualty tied to inflation, and shares plummeted in the extended session.
“We’re hearing from advertisers that macroeconomic challenges like cost inflation and supply chain disruptions are impacting advertiser budgets,” the company disclosed in its fourth-quarter earnings release.
The stock traded as low as $257.65 as of 4:40 p.m. ET on Wednesday, off over 20%, after closing at $323 per share.
In the fourth quarter, net income fell to $10.2 billion from $11.2 billion during the same period a year ago, or $3.67 versus $3.88 per share. Revenue rose to $33.6 billion from $28 billion a year ago.
Daily active users rose 5%, or 1.93 billion.
Revenue for the first quarter will range between $27 billion and $29 billion, below the $30 billion or so analysts were expecting.
Other social media stocks fell in sympathy including Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the quarter as “solid” and highlighted key priorities for 2022.
“I’m encouraged by the progress we made this past year in a number of important growth areas like Reels, commerce, and virtual reality, and we’ll continue investing in these and other key priorities in 2022 as we work towards building the metaverse,” he said in the earnings release.
Facebook ended the 2021-year dealing with a public relations crisis after whistle-blower Francis Haugen went public with allegations that the tech giant ignored questionable and harmful content to focus on profits, among other things. Facebook disputed many of her claims.
Haugen released a trove of documents related to her claims to multiple news organizations at the same time, including FOX Business.
Additionally, the company’s ticker FB will change to META in the first half of the year while continuing its listing on the Nasdaq.
