Here's Why Meta Stock Is Down Despite Big Earnings Beat

30 Oct 2024 by Lindsey Choo · Forbes

Topline

Shares of Meta Platforms fell by more than 3% as the company reported earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street expectations Wednesday.

Meta logo at their headquarters in Menlo Park, California. (Photo by Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for ... [+] Facebook)Getty Images for Facebook

Key Facts

Meta reported $6.03 earnings per share and $40.5 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2024, compared to analyst expectations of $5.22 earnings per share and $40.2 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

Daily active users across its apps grew by 5% year-over-year to 3.29 billion, but missed analyst expectations of 3.31 billion.

Meta shares have outperformed those of its peers as it has grown by about 70% year-to-date, while other tech giants like Google and Microsoft have grown by about 30% and 18% respectively.

Stock of the social media giant hit an all-time high at $602.95 earlier this month.

Capital expenditures also rose year-over-year to $9.2 billion as the company continues to invest billions into artificial intelligence and its Reality Labs hardware unit.

Its Reality Labs unit, in charge of products like the Meta Quest headset and the newly-previewed Orion augmented reality glasses, posted a $4.4 billion operating loss, a trend CFO Susan Li said the company expects to continue through the rest of the year, adding to ongoing investor concerns.

Key Background

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, is betting big on AI as it gears up to train the latest version of its flagship AI model Llama, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg said was “well into development” at Wednesday’s third-quarter earnings call. “At this point, I’d rather risk building capacity before it is needed rather than too late,” Zuckerberg said on the second-quarter earnings call in July. Meta AI, the company’s flagship chatbot, has more than 500 million monthly active users, he said on Wednesday’s call. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, a surprise hit for the company, is a top selling product in Ray-Ban stores across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Ray-Ban parent EssilorLuxottica reported earlier this month. Meta’s AI investments could also help boost user engagement on its social media apps, Truist Securities analysts wrote ahead of earnings release. On the social media front, Threads, Meta’s X competitor, reached almost 275 million users about a year after its debut, Zuckerberg said.

Big Number

$1.5 trillion. That’s Meta’s market capitalization, which makes the company one of eight trillion-dollar companies in the world.

Forbes Valuation

Co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who ranked No. 3 on this year’s Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, is worth an estimated $207.5 billion according to Forbes’ real-time tracker, making him one of four people in the world whose net worth surpasses $200 billion. Nearly all of his fortune is tied up in Meta shares and its performance. Zuckerberg’s net worth has more than tripled from an estimated $64.4 billion last year.

What To Watch For

Meta is reportedly developing its own AI search engine in an effort to reduce its reliance on Google Search and Microsoft’s Bing, The Information reported. The search engine is designed to help supply answers to queries made to the Meta AI chatbot.

Surprising Fact

In what has now been dubbed “Grubgate,” Meta terminated about two dozen employees this month for abusing a $25 Grubhub meal credit. The employees reportedly used the credit to purchase non-food items like laundry detergent and wine glasses.