Shares of Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, soared more than 17% Thursday, adding nearly $11 billion to Zuckerberg’s wealth in a single day. Earlier in the day, the stock was up as much as 19%, briefly boosting Zuckerberg’s fortune by $11.5 billion.
Though Meta missed Wall Street’s first-quarter revenue forecasts and posted its slowest revenue growth in years, investors celebrated the reversal in user counts — a key metric for advertisers. Thursday’s dizzying reaction was in stark contrast to Meta’s disastrous fourth-quarter results, which sent shares tumbling in early February in the biggest single-day wipeout in Wall Street history. That loss also knocked Zuckerberg, who owns 13% of Meta, from his ninth place among the world’s super-rich, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
As of Wednesday’s close, Zuckerberg was ranked 18th with a net worth of $65 billion. Thursday’s rally should propel him up a few notches, taking his net worth to about $76 billion.
Though Meta (FB) was up on Thursday, the stock remains 39% lower for the year and is facing serious headwinds.
The company is battling rivals like TikTok, struggling to monetize popular video content, and facing disruption to its core advertising business due to changes in Apple’s privacy practices.
Meta also noted that its business has been impacted by Russia’s war in Ukraine — Facebook and Instagram were suspended in Russia last month — and expects those challenges to continue in the current quarter.
— Clare Duffy of CNN Business contributed to this report.