Reuters Meta Platforms issued its first dividend days ahead of flagship social network Facebook39;s 20th anniversary, while reporting revenue and profit that beat expectations on robust ad sales in the holiday shopping period.

Shares soared more than 14 after the bell, pushing the company39;s stock market valuation up by more than 140 billion and extending a long recovery that saw Meta hit record highs in recent weeks for the first time in more than two years.

The afterhours gains alone amounted to more than quintuple the entire value of social media rival Snap Inc.

Meta, one of the tech sector39;s original unicorns, said its dividend would be 50 cents per share. It also announced it had authorized an additional 50 billion in share repurchases.

The social media giant is the first of its generation of internet juggernauts to issue a dividend, a milestone for a tech sector that has been dominated by the same handful of companies for well over a decade.

Founded in a college dorm room in 2004, it has grown into the world39;s biggest social media company, connecting more than 3 billion people and revolutionizing how they discover trends, communicate with their neighbors and engage with politics.

The company, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, has also been accused of ignoring a multitude of harms on its path to growth, including violations of user privacy and incitements to violence.

Just a day before announcing results, CEO Mark Zuckerberg was called to testify before…