Read this Friday’s edition of the FolhaMercado newsletter (02) – 02/02/2024 – Market

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The 1st time of the Goal

Meta, owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, released its balance sheet for the last quarter of last year on Thursday, when it exceeded all analysts’ expectations and recorded the biggest increase in its annual revenue in two years.

The company also took the opportunity to announce its first dividend distribution in history and a share buyback package worth US$50 billion (R$247 billion).

• Both forms are considered ways to generate returns for shareholders.

In reaction, the company’s shares soared 14% in after-market trading. If the increase is confirmed in today’s trading session (2), the shares will reach their all-time high.

The positive announcement for the company came the day after Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder and CEO, apologized to the families of victims of bullying for social media posts.

What explains the good result: the rise of 25% in revenue compared to the same period last year is attributed to the use of AI in advertising.

↳ For analysts, Meta was able to use the tool to improve the targeting of advertisements, regaining an advantage that it had lost with Apple’s new privacy policies.

Why didn’t it pay dividends? Not only Meta, but most big techs prefer to use the billions of profits to reinvest in the company itself and in the development of new tools.

Other balance sheets from this Thursday:

↳ Amazon also recorded a positive quarter, driven by year-end holiday sales. With revenue and profit above Wall Street expectations, its shares rose 7% in the post-market.

↳ Apple was another that saw its revenue grow and interrupted a sequence of four quarters of negative decline in revenues in the annual comparison.

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Volkswagen plans R$16 billion for Brazil

Volkswagen’s investment plan in Brazil involves energy efficiency. To this end, the automaker states that it will expand R$9 billion the contribution to the program, which will total R$16 billion between 2022 and 2028.

How Volkswagen plans to be greener here:

↳ Produce the first hybrid cars of the brand in the country, in addition to a pickup truck that will compete with Fiat Toro, RAM Rampage and Ford Maverick;

↳ Reduce emissions in cars and factories. One measure will be the use of biomethane, a renewable gas, for painting car bodies.

• The company claims that it reduces CO2 emissions by 90% compared to fossil gas.

Yes but… As the automaker does not divide the amounts invested by factories or models, future launches also include flex-fuel cars without electrification and even diesel options, as is the case with the Amarok medium pickup truck, which is produced in Argentina.

About 100% electric cars, the German company should only start manufacturing them here at the end of the decade. Until then, it will import models that do not use a combustion engine and start regular sales in the country.

Beyond VolkswagenGM (R$7 billion) and BYD (R$3 billion) recently detailed their investment programs for the country.

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To read

• “The Same as Always – A Guide to What Never Changes” (Morgan Housel, trans. Cássio de Arantes Leite, Objetiva, 232 pages, R$ 53.91, R$ 29.90 ebook).

The author of the bestseller “Financial Psychology” is now launching a sequel to talk about the effectiveness of looking at “what never changes”.

Through several anecdotes, which involve stories about Martin Luther King and Bill Gates and evoke personal reflections, Housel explains key concepts of behavioral economics and hopes to improve readers’ decision-making abilities.

The idea is to focus on what has already happened in the past instead of trying to predict the future – something that is on the minds of many people starting out in the world of investing.

Beyond the economy