Meta reported strong earnings for the first quarter of 2025. The company earned $6.43 per share on revenue of $42.3 billion. This was well above Wall Street’s expectations of $5.25 EPS and $41.3 billion in revenue. In Q1 of last year, Meta reported $4.71 EPS on $36.4 billion, so this is a big jump year over year.
Ad Revenue Leads the Way
Meta’s advertising revenue came in at $41.39 billion, higher than the expected $40.5 billion. This strong performance came despite worries that new tariffs and global uncertainty might hurt ad spending. For Q2, Meta expects revenue between $42.5 billion and $45.5 billion, higher than the $44 billion analysts expected.
Costs Are Going Up
While Meta’s earnings were strong, the company raised its capital spending forecast for the year. It now expects to spend between $64 billion and $72 billion, up from a previous range of $60 billion to $65 billion. This increase reflects higher investments in AI and infrastructure.
Stock Reaction and Performance
Meta’s stock jumped more than 5% in premarket trading after the earnings report. Still, the stock is down over 7% so far this year but it’s up more than 25% compared to a year ago.
Analysts noted that Meta doesn’t have a cloud business like other tech giants and relies heavily on advertising. They also pointed out that Meta has over 10% exposure to Chinese advertisers, many of whom are pulling back spending.
Legal Battle with the FTC
Meta is currently fighting the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which accuses the company of running an illegal monopoly in social networking. The FTC wants Meta to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp, saying the company bought them to crush competition.
Ties to Trump
Zuckerberg has met with former President Trump several times recently. He also attended Trump’s inauguration in January, and Meta donated $1 million to the event. In a separate case, Meta paid a $25 million settlement to Trump over his ban from the platform after the January 6 Capitol riot.
according to Yahoo Finance
