Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is reaping the rewards of incorporating artificial intelligence into its products, as reflected in its Q3 results.
Meta Platforms printed another strong quarter after the close today. META stock sold off a little in the immediate aftermath of earnings, but we remain bullish on the name in the medium term. We rate META stock at Hold with a price target of $676.
A surprise fall in the active user base of Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, ETR:FB2A, SWX:FB) took the gloss off an otherwise solid set of quarterly numbers, wiping around 3.8% or $56 billion from the value of the business. Q3h revenue climbed 19% year-over-year to $40.6 billion and earnings per share reached $6.03, both exceeding Wall Street expectations.
The old saying is you've got to spend money to make money. For Meta, notching a third quarter earnings report with record revenues, the fact remains that the long-term artificial intelligence (AI) roadmap will require as yet undefined billions of dollars of capital investments in the next year and beyond.
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META ) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript October 30, 2024 5:00 PM ET Company Participants Kenneth Dorell - Director of IR Mark Zuckerberg - Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Susan Li - Chief Financial Officer Conference Call Participants Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley Eric Sheridan - Goldman Sachs Douglas Anmuth - JPMorgan Justin Post - Bank of America Ross Sandler - Barclays Ronald Josey - Citi Ken Gawrelski - Wells Fargo Securities Youssef Squali - Truist Securities Mark Mahaney - Evercore ISI Operator Good afternoon. My name is Krista and I will be your conference operator today.
Zuckerberg said that he is going to keep building out Meta's infrastructure and data centers, because the opportunity is so huge, even if investors don't like it.
Meta Platforms (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in Wednesday's earnings call that more spending on artificial intelligence (AI) products and infrastructure "is maybe not what investors want to hear in the near term," but that he feels it's necessary for the tech giant to seize opportunities in the industry.
Meta has been so quick to build out its massive data center and computing infrastructure for AI that even CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a bit surprised. Meta raised the low end of its capital expenditures guidance for 2024 to $38 billion from $37 billion.
As we've stated in this space previously, the big news the market is waiting for is not here yet.
While the top- and bottom-line numbers for Meta Platforms (META) give a sense of how the business performed in the quarter ended September 2024, it could be worth looking at how some of its key metrics compare to Wall Street estimates and year-ago values.
Meta's earnings come after encouraging results from digital ad bellwethers Alphabet and Snap.
Meta Platforms (META) came out with quarterly earnings of $6.03 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5.19 per share. This compares to earnings of $4.39 per share a year ago.