Meta Platforms Inc. changed its narrative in a big way this week, and that’s resonating on Wall Street. Three months ago, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and his leadership team sounded fairly defiant as they laid out big spending plans despite economic angst, an attitude that helped send shares toward one of their worst days on record.
But Meta’s
META,
+23.28%
management sounded more disciplined on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday, and the stock enjoyed a big move higher. Shares of Facebook’s parent company closed up 23.3% in Thursday trading to stage their second-largest one-day percentage rally on record, and their best performance since July 25, 2013, according to Dow Jones Market Data. On that day in July 2013, Meta had a market value of just $83.7 billion, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The company added more than that — $92.4 billion — to its market value in Thursday’s session alone. Meta did fall short of adding $100 billion in market cap to its total for the first time on record, despite being on track to do so for part of the trading day. See more: Meta stock spikes nearly 20% as cost cuts and $40 billion for investors overshadow earnings miss “With the new efficiency mentality, the stock is now positioned for leverage/EPS upside as the ad environment improves,” wrote Bank of America’s Justin Post, who upgraded the stock to buy from hold following the report, while increasing his price objective to $200 from $160. Meta’s fourth-quarter revenue marginally exceeded the consensus view, and the company showed “mixed” profitability in the latest quarter amid a restructuring. “But none of this matters” now that Meta “meaningfully” lowered its capital-expense …