Meta beats Street, announces $40-bn buyback; to sack some mid-level staff

Meta Platforms Inc’s stricter cost controls this year and a new $40 billion share buyback sent shares soaring on Wednesday, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg called 2023 the “Year of Efficiency.”

The parent of Instagram and Facebook cut its cost outlook for 2023 by $5 billion to a range of $89 billion-95 billion, and projected first-quarter sales that could beat Wall Street estimates.

Meta stock has added $237 billion in market value since its November low. The shares surged over 20% in intraday trading on Thursday, its biggest intraday jump in nearly a decade, after Zuckerberg pledged to make the social media company leaner. Analysts welcomed the move, with at least three brokerages upgrading their recommendations on the stock after the earnings report.