Meta shares rise making Mark Zuckerberg $11 billion richer and slowly regaining a foothold on the top 10 richest list. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, had its stock rise more than 17% on Thursday, putting Zuckerberg’s fortune at roughly $11 billion in a single day. Earlier in the day, the stock had risen as much as 19 percent, raising Zuckerberg’s fortune by $11.5 billion.
Despite the fact that Meta missed Wall Street revenue projections for the first quarter and experienced its weakest revenue growth in years, investors cheered the company’s improvement in user counts, which is an important metric for advertisers.
Meta’s dismal fourth-quarter results, which sent shares plunging in early February in the largest single-day wipeout on Wall Street ever, were in stark contrast to the ecstatic reaction on Thursday. That loss also pushed Zuckerberg, who owns 13% of Meta, down to ninth place among the world’s billionaires, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
With a net worth of $65 billion as of Wednesday’s close, Zuckerberg was rated No. 18 on the list. The surge on Thursday should propel him up a few slots, bringing his net worth to around $76 billion.
Despite the fact that Meta (FB) was up on Thursday, the company is still down 39 percent for the year and faces significant headwinds.
The company is competing with TikTok, is failing to monetize popular video content, and is suffering disruption in its main advertising business as a result of Apple’s new privacy policies.
Meta also stated that Russia’s war in Ukraine has harmed its business — Facebook and Instagram were recently prohibited in Russia — and that it anticipates such issues to continue in the current quarter.