By Katie Paul and Yuvraj Malik
(Reuters) - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) issued its first ever dividend days ahead of flagship social network Facebook's 20th anniversary, while reporting revenue that beat expectations as a result of robust ad and device sales in the holiday shopping period.
The company, one of the tech sector's original unicorns, said the dividend would be $0.50 per share. It also announced it had authorized an additional $50 billion in share repurchases, saying it would continue buying shares.
The announcement sent shares soaring 9% in trade after the bell, extending a long recovery that saw it notch record highs in recent weeks for the first time in more than two years.
"We've made a lot of progress on our vision for advancing AI and the metaverse," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a prepared statement.
Revenue rose 25% to $40.1 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31. Analysts were expecting revenue of $39.2 billion, according to LSEG data.
The results followed a showing on Tuesday from fellow digital ads heavyweight Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) that disappointed Wall Street, after its holiday season advertising sales came in below expectations.
Shares of Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, have been steadily climbing back from a meltdown in 2022 that wiped out more than three-quarters of the company's one-time value when it was buoyed by investor excitement about artificial intelligence.
Its recovery has also been aided by a rebound in user growth and digital ad sales, as well as an austerity drive that saw it shed more than 21,000 employees since late 2022.