Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has taken plenty of heat in recent years over what some consider rampant spending. And rightly so.

One prime example of this was the company's rebranding to Meta, to signal its long-term goal of building a metaverse business. Another example was the expansion of a business segment known as Reality Labs, which includes the Quest VR headsets and related software sales. Reality Labs lost $4 billion in the first quarter alone.

It hasn't been all bad at Meta, though. In fact, even as the company invests heavily in the metaverse, it remained highly profitable and still manages to return lots of excess cash to shareholders via share repurchases. In fact, it doled out quite a bit of buying back in 2022 during the current bear market, which is starting to look like really good timing considering the first-quarter earnings report. 

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Source Fool.com