Meta stock down on weak revenue forecast

Meta shares tumbled 10% on Thursday, their worst day since October 2022, after the corporate issued weak income steerage that overshadowed its first-quarter earnings beat.

The inventory closed at $441.38, wiping out roughly $132 billion in market cap from Wednesday’s $493.50 closing worth earlier than earnings.

The corporate reported $4.71 in earnings per share on $36.46 billion in income for the quarter, exceeding the $4.32 in anticipated earnings per share and $36.16 billion in anticipated gross sales, in keeping with LSEG.

The inventory sell-off gained tempo in prolonged buying and selling on Wednesday after CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned spending in areas equivalent to synthetic intelligence and combined actuality that aren’t presently worthwhile.

Meta expects second-quarter income of $36.5 billion to $39 billion. The midpoint of the vary, $37.75 billion, falls in need of analysts’ common estimate of $38.3 billion.

JPMorgan analysts reiterated their chubby score of Meta whereas dropping their worth goal to $480 from $535, citing the corporate’s more and more heavy AI investments they imagine could in the end repay.

“Meta’s digital possession of the social graph, sturdy aggressive moat, and concentrate on the person expertise place it to develop into an everlasting blue-chip firm constructed for the long run,” they wrote in a word Thursday.

Analysts at Bernstein, retaining an outperform score on Meta shares, decreased their worth goal to $565 from $590, and described the corporate’s present enterprise technique as an “costly offensive” with an extended payback.

“We get the uncertainty, however Meta deserves to retain an elevated a number of right here,” they wrote in a Wednesday word. “With out sounding overly non secular, you both imagine in Zuck or you do not, and we do.”

Barclays analysts maintained an chubby score of Meta inventory and lowered their worth goal to $520 from $550 in an investor word Wednesday. They affirmed their religion within the “title long run” regardless of what they anticipate might be “a bumpy journey for the remainder of 2024 as income progress charges decelerate a bunch from right here.”

“If there may be something META has confirmed through the years, it is extraordinarily good at executing throughout massive platform shifts in tech, arguably the very best,” the Barclays analysts wrote. “We did not hear something from Zuckerberg that causes main concern.”

— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.