To The Moon

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Facebook's parent company $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$, announced on Thursday that it will distribute a quarterly dividend of 50 cents per share, as well as authorize a new $50 billion share repurchase program.

According to the company's board of directors' plan, Meta will distribute dividends quarterly in the future but will also consider market conditions.

The dividend will be distributed to all shareholders who are registered as of February 22 in March.

The stock rose more than 12% on the back of earnings, dividends and buybacks. Just two weeks ago, the stock price broke through $378, hitting a high point in 2021.

Among the big tech stocks in the U.S., $Amazon.com(AMZN)$ and $Alphabet(GOOG)$ $Alphabet(GOOGL)$, which are also known as the "Magnificent Seven," have never paid dividends.

$Microsoft(MSFT)$ first paid a dividend in 2003, while $Oracle(ORCL)$ began paying a dividend in 2009. Other technology giants that pay regular dividends include $Apple(AAPL)$ .

As for share repurchases, Meta repurchased $6.32 billion and $20.03 billion worth of Class A common stock in the fourth quarter and for the full fiscal year 2023, respectively.

As of December 31, 2023, the remaining amount authorized for share repurchase plans was $30.93 billion. At its current market value of $1 trillion, the newly authorized share buyback quota represents about 5% of its total outstanding shares.

Finally, let's talk about the earnings report. Meta's profit and revenue in the fourth quarter significantly exceeded market expectations, including EPS of $5.33, higher than analyst expectations of $4.91, revenue of $40.11 billion was also higher than expectations of $39.01 billion.

By business segment, advertising revenue was $38.71 billion, APP family revenue was $49.04 billion, and Reality Labs revenue was $1.07 billion.