The US stock markets closed Wednesday’s session mostly higher as investors keenly followed the release of corporate earnings reports.
Facebook owner Meta Platforms released its first-quarter earnings results after-hours trading. Other major companies that have released their earnings include Paypal, Ford Motors, Standard Chartered among many others.
The Dow Jones gained 0.19% at the closing bell, with Microsoft surging 4.81% after the tech giant reported impressive earnings. The S&P 500 was up 0.21% while the Nasdaq 100 was flat at close.
Meta’s Q1
Facebook owner Meta Platforms reported its first-quarter results on Wednesday, with its revenue rising 7% to $27.91 billion. Net income tumbled 21% to $7.47 billion.
Facebook’s daily active users arrived at 1.96 billion, with monthly active users reaching 2.94 billion in the first trimester of 2022 as both figures expanded slightly versus the same period of 2021. The tech giant’s ad revenue stood at $27 billion.
Meta’s shares soared over 18% in the after-hours trading following the announcement.
PayPal
PayPal Holdings Inc. announced on Wednesday that its net revenue in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2022 increased by 8% to $6.5 billion.
The company’s total payment volume (TPV) grew by 13% compared to the same period the year before to $323 billion. Its operating income went down by 32% year-on-year to $700 million.
Ford’s Q1
Ford Motor Company announced on Wednesday that its revenue for the first fiscal quarter of 2022 fell 5% to $34.5 billion, while its net loss amounted to $3.1 billion.
“Strong customer demand for its fresh lineup of vehicles in the first quarter of 2022 was tempered by persistent supply chain issues that reduced the speed with which the company could fulfill demand,” stated the report. Ford’s CEO Jim Farley shared that the company is “breaking constraints wherever they exist to get more Ford vehicles – including our innovative EVs – to more customers as quickly as possible.”
TotalEnergies
TotalEnergies SE announced on Thursday that its IFRS net income in the first quarter of 2022 amounted to $4.9 billion, surging 48% year on year.
CEO Patrick Pouyanne said that, as a result of Russia’s “military aggression” against Ukraine, TotalEnergies stopped providing capital for projects in Russia and “initiated the gradual suspension of its activities” in the country.
Standard Chartered PLC
Standard Chartered PLC’s reported on Thursday its profit before taxation in the first quarter of 2022 was $1.5 billion, marking a 6% increase compared to the same period a year earlier and topping estimates. Underlying profit before tax was up 4% to $1.5 billion.
The lender’s operating income rose 9% per annum to reach $4.3 billion and earnings per share climbed 6% compared to last year to land at 34.6 cents.
Pinterest Inc. said on Wednesday that its revenue in the first quarter of the year rose by 18% in comparison to the same period in 2021 to $575 million. Net loss decreased by 76% in the first trimester of 2022, on an annual basis, landing at $5.3 million.
“We continued to scale our native content and creators ecosystem, began beta testing Your Shop, our personalized shopping surface, and released our new open Pinterest API so that any developer can build applications for Pinners, creators, merchants and advertisers,” CEO Ben Silbermann noted, adding that “despite a challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, we grew revenue 18% year-over-year.”
Qualcomm
Qualcomm Inc. said on Wednesday its revenue in the second quarter of its fiscal 2022 amounted to $11.2 billion, rising 41% year on year.
Diluted earnings per share (EPS) soared 68% to $2.57, and net income surged 38% to $2.9 billion when compared to the same period last year.
The company’s shares went up more than 8% in the after-hours trading after the announcement.