close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

    • Meta shares are falling while Q3 earnings are spot on and user growth is lacking
    news

    Meta shares are falling while Q3 earnings are spot on and user growth is lacking

    Vaseline Posted on

    Topline

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

    Key facts

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

    The number of daily active users on its apps grew 5% year over year to 3.29 billion, but missed analysts’ expectations of 3.31 billion.

    Meta stocks have outperformed their peers as they have grown around 70% year to date, while other tech giants like Google and Microsoft have grown around 30% and 18% respectively.

    The social media giant’s shares hit an all-time high of $602.95 earlier this month.

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

    The Reality Labs unit, responsible for products like the Meta Quest headset and the newly previewed Orion augmented reality glasses, posted an operating loss of $4.4 billion, a trend CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company expects to will continue for the rest of the year. to the ongoing concerns of investors.

    Important background

    Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, is betting big on AI as it prepares to train the latest version of its flagship AI model Llama. “Right now, I’d rather risk building capacity before it’s needed than too late,” Zuckerberg said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call in July. Meta AI, the company’s flagship chatbot, has nearly 500 million monthly active users, he said last month. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, a surprise hit for the company, are a top-selling product in Ray-Ban stores across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Ray-Ban parent company EssilorLuxottica said earlier this month. Meta’s AI investments could also help boost user engagement on its social media apps, Truist Securities analysts wrote ahead of the earnings release. In social media, Threads, Meta’s X competitor, reached 200 million users about a year after its debut, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced.

    Big number

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

    Forbes rating

    Co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who ranked third 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 exceeds $200 billion. Nearly all of his fortune is tied up in Meta stock and its performance. Zuckerberg’s net worth has more than tripled from an estimated $64.4 billion last year.

    What to pay attention to

    Meta is reportedly developing its own AI search engine in an effort to reduce its dependence on Google Search and Microsoft’s Bing, The Information reported. The search engine is designed to provide answers to questions asked to the Meta AI chatbot.

    Surprising fact

    In what is now being dubbed “Grubgate,” Meta fired about 20 employees this month for misusing a $25 Grubhub meal credit. The employees allegedly used the credit to purchase non-food items such as laundry detergent and wine glasses.

    Read more

    Instagram Introduces New ‘Sextortion’ Railings for Child Safety: Here’s What You Need to Know (Forbes)

    How 2 Students Used the Meta Ray-Bans to Access Personal Information (Forbes)

    Vaseline
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like