Meta stock price soars on strong Q4 ad sales. Spending on AI is way up, too

Meta’s fourth-quarter results jumped past Wall Street’s expectations thanks to solid advertising revenue, sending shares sharply higher in after-hours trading Wednesday.

The company earned $22.77 billion, or $8.88 per share, in the October-December quarter. That’s up 9% from $20.84 billion, or $8.02 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue grew 24% to $59.89 billion from $48.39 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $8.21 per share on revenue of $58.5 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.

“Once again, Meta surpassed analysts’ earnings expectations for the quarter, cementing its position as one of the world’s most dominant media companies,” said Debra Aho Williamson, chief analyst at Sonata Insights. “Its strong performance provides a solid foundation to continue its massive investments into AI. If there were any signs of revenue shortfall, investors would look at the capital expenditures more negatively.”

Meta’s expenses, which the company already warned will be significantly higher this year, grew 40% to $35.15 billion.

For the current quarter, Meta is forecasting revenue in the range of $53.5 billion to $56.5 billion. That’s above analysts’ forecast of $51.4 billion. For 2026, Meta is forecasting expenses in the range of $162 billion to $169 billion, driven by infrastructure costs and employee compensation, particularly for the artificial intelligence (AI) experts it’s been hiring at eye-popping pay levels.

Meta had 78,865 employees at the end of the year, an increase of 6% from a year earlier.

Shares of the Menlo Park, California-based company (Nasdaq: META) rose $73.15, or 10.9%, to $741.88 in after-hours trading.

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer