Tech editor Dan Howley takes a closer look at Meta's latest earnings beat alongside updates to its share buyback program.

Video Transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: All right, earnings alert here, investors hitting the like button on Meta earnings, up 13 plus percent after-hours after the company released its fourth quarter earnings. Share buyback, revenue beat. Dan Howley here with the most surprising thing you saw in this report. What do investors like, sir?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, obviously, the stock buyback is a big deal. But there's some numbers here that are pretty interesting. And I just want to go over them real quick. I think, obviously, the Reality Labs, we have that operating loss of 4.28 billion, still plowing money into that endeavor. Whether or not that will pay off, and if it does, when, we still don't know. But you look at the Reality Labs revenue was 727 million. It's better-- beat estimates. Family of apps revenue, that beat estimates. Advertising revenue, that beat estimates.

So it's interesting to see that-- and as Seana previously pointed out-- monthly active users missed on estimates, but not by too much. You know, I think it's interesting the fact that we saw Snap kind of with this dire warning yesterday of their next quarter. But Meta seeming to kind of pull it out of nowhere and do so well here by beating on both the top and bottom line.

DAVE BRIGGS: It looks like a Snap problem, not a sector problem, from what you're seeing right now.

DAN HOWLEY: Or it could be that Meta has managed to flesh out those problems with Apple's privacy changes, right? Maybe they've gotten a hold of that, and Snap is still trying to work through that. Don't forget, Meta has been investing more in AI. They're really trying to compete better with TikTok as far as that recommendation algorithm.

You know, I got to tell you, I use Instagram, and it seems to be doing that as well as TikTok does now, to a degree. It might not be as sticky, and obviously, kids are still more interested in TikTok than they are Facebook, where their uncles yell at each other, or Instagram, where their mom posts pictures of themselves, but, you know, I think it is a solid step up for them, I think, for this quarter, just to see their advertising revenue really pick up again.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, certainly, it looks like a strong quarter here for Meta. The stock now up almost 15% in extended trading. Dan Howley, thanks so much.