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Meta Shares Fall Amid Q3 Earnings Beat and User Growth Miss

Published

3 weeks ago

October 31, 2024

Meta Shares Fall Amid Q3 Earnings Beat and User Growth Miss

Topline

Shares of Meta Platforms fell by greater than 3% as the corporate reported earnings and income that beat Wall Avenue expectations Wednesday.

Meta emblem at their headquarters in Menlo Park, California. (Picture by Kelly Sullivan/Getty Photographs for … [+] Fb)

Getty Photographs for Fb

Key Info

Meta reported $6.03 earnings per share and $40.5 billion in income within the third quarter of 2024, in comparison with analyst expectations of $5.22 earnings per share and $40.2 billion in income, based on FactSet.

Each day energetic customers throughout its apps grew by 5% year-over-year to three.29 billion, however missed analyst expectations of three.31 billion.

Meta shares have outperformed these of its friends because it has grown by about 70% year-to-date, whereas different tech giants like Google and Microsoft have grown by about 30% and 18% respectively.

Inventory of the social media large hit an all-time excessive at $602.95 earlier this month.

Capital expenditures additionally rose year-over-year to $9.2 billion as the corporate continues to speculate billions into synthetic intelligence and its Actuality Labs {hardware} unit.

Its Actuality Labs unit, in control of merchandise just like the Meta Quest headset and the newly-previewed Orion augmented actuality glasses, posted a $4.4 billion working loss, a pattern CFO Susan Li mentioned the corporate expects to proceed by way of the remainder of the yr, including to ongoing investor considerations.

Key Background

Meta, which owns Fb, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, is betting massive on AI because it gears as much as practice the most recent model of its flagship AI mannequin Llama, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned was “nicely into improvement” at Wednesday’s third-quarter earnings name. “At this level, I’d somewhat threat constructing capability earlier than it’s wanted somewhat than too late,” Zuckerberg mentioned on the second-quarter earnings name in July. Meta AI, the corporate’s flagship chatbot, has greater than 500 million month-to-month energetic customers, he mentioned on Wednesday’s name. The Ray-Ban Meta sensible glasses, a shock hit for the corporate, is a high promoting product in Ray-Ban shops throughout Europe, the Center East and Africa, Ray-Ban mum or dad EssilorLuxottica reported earlier this month. Meta’s AI investments may additionally assist enhance person engagement on its social media apps, Truist Securities analysts wrote forward of earnings launch. On the social media entrance, Threads, Meta’s X competitor, reached virtually 275 million customers a few yr after its debut, Zuckerberg mentioned.

Massive Quantity

$1.5 trillion. That’s Meta’s market capitalization, which makes the corporate one in every of eight trillion-dollar firms on the planet.

Forbes Valuation

Co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who ranked No. 3 on this yr’s Forbes 400 record of richest Individuals, is price an estimated $207.5 billion based on Forbes’ real-time tracker, making him one in every of 4 folks on the planet whose web price surpasses $200 billion. Practically all of his fortune is tied up in Meta shares and its efficiency. Zuckerberg’s web price has greater than tripled from an estimated $64.4 billion final yr.

What To Watch For

Meta is reportedly creating its personal AI search engine in an effort to cut back its reliance on Google Search and Microsoft’s Bing, The Info reported. The search engine is designed to assist provide solutions to queries made to the Meta AI chatbot.

Stunning Truth

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