Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc shares soared on Wednesday as it reported quarterly daily active users above Wall Street estimates, even as it recorded its slowest revenue growth in a decade.

Shares of the company rose 13% in extended trading.

Daily active users, a key metric for advertisers that indicates activity on Facebook, were 1.96 billion, slightly higher that the estimate of 1.95 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Meta has lost about half of its value since the start of the year, after a dismal February earnings when it reported a decline in Facebook's daily active users for the first time and forecast a gloomy quarter, blaming factors including Apple's privacy changes and increased competition from platforms like ByteDance's TikTok.

In these latest results, Meta forecast second-quarter revenue between $28 billion and $30 billion. Analysts on average were expecting current-quarter revenue of $30.63 billion.

Total revenue, the bulk of which comes from ad sales, rose 7% to $27.91 billion in the first quarter, but missed analysts' estimates of $28.20 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

  - Reuters