The capitalization of the American company Meta soared on February 2 by more than $200 billion thanks to strong reporting and dividends announced for the first time. This is the largest daily increase in market value in the history of Wall Street, writes MarketWatch.
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Capitalization of companies
In February 2022, Amazon’s capitalization jumped by $191 billion during the session.
< p>Meta shares rose in price by 20% and finished trading at a record level of $474.99 per share.
Thanks to this, the fortune of Meta founder and head Mark Zuckerberg, who owns about 13% of the company's shares, has grown to $170 billion, and now he ranks fourth in the list of the richest people in the world, surpassing Bill Gates ($145 billion).
Since the beginning of the year, the price of Meta securities has increased by 34%, and Zuckerberg’s fortune has jumped by $42.4 billion in just over a month. In 2023, the company's market value increased two and a half times (by 154%), and since its IPO in 2012 – more than 12 times and now stands at $1.22 trillion.
As reported, Zuckerberg will receive about $700 million a year from dividends (before taxes). The quarterly dividend is set at 50 cents per share.
The strong quarterly performance, announced dividends and announced $50 billion share repurchase program have many analysts revising their estimates of Meta shares.
So, the analyst Raymond James Josh Beck raised his price target for Meta by $100, to $550 per share, with a “strong buy” recommendation. In his opinion, the company can increase revenue by $25-60 billion per year through the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies.
Ken Gavrelski from Wells Fargo estimates Meta shares “above the market” with a target price of $536 per share (previously – $438 per share), Mark Mahaney of Evercore ISI believes that the company's stock price could reach $550 versus the previous forecast of $425.
Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik noted that Meta has a good long-term strategy and compared its shares with watches from the Patek Phillipe brand: “To paraphrase the famous Patek slogan, you don’t actually own Meta shares, you just hold them for future generations.”