Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives at the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, United States, Wednesday, September 25, 2024.
David Paul Morris | David Paul Morris Bloomberg | Getty Images
Yuan The company is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings after the close of regular trading on Wednesday.
Here are the expectations of analysts polled by London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG):
- Earnings per share: $5.25
- income: US$40.29 billion
Meta shares are up nearly 70% this year, driven by a series of strong earnings reports, and are trading near a record. The company’s Wall Street gains benefited Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who in early October surpassed Amazon For the first time, founder Jeff Bezos has become the world’s second-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Zuckerberg has consistently pointed to Meta’s massive investments in artificial intelligence, including spending billions of dollars in the field NVIDIA The popular graphics processing unit will help improve the company’s core online advertising business after Apple’s 2021 iOS privacy updates.
Meta reported in July that its sales had grown more than 20% for the fourth consecutive quarter, and investors remained optimistic about the company’s overall financial health. Meta replaces letter The company has been called a “set and forget blue chip” due to its “healthy core business” and low-risk artificial intelligence strategy.
Meta results were released a day after Digital Advertising letter, Reddit and break All companies reported solid quarterly earnings. Microsoft reports after the bell on Wednesday, capping off a big week of tech earnings on Thursday when Apple and Amazon report quarterly results.
One possible concern for Meta is slowing revenue growth.
If Meta meets analysts’ expectations for third-quarter revenue, annual growth will be 18%, down from 23% in the same period last year. At the time, Meta was benefiting from huge digital ad spend from China-linked retailers such as Temu and Shein, and it’s unclear how long those companies will continue their digital marketing blitz.
In February, Meta announced a 25% annual increase in fourth-quarter revenue, and in April the company’s first-quarter revenue increased by 27% annually. Beating those scores will be a “tough hurdle” for the company, said Angelo Zino, CFRA vice president and technology equity research analyst. Investors will be eager to see guidance.
“You look at this and you wonder, is this going to continue?” Zino said.
Meanwhile, Meta continues to invest heavily in its real-world lab hardware division. The company’s strong online advertising business and previous rounds of major layoffs in 2022 and 2023 helped calm investor concerns, but Reality Labs’ $4.8 billion in second-quarter expenses dwarfed its sales of $353 million.
Zuckerberg showed off the company’s Orion AR prototype AR glasses in September, which his employees considered a success, and Meta plans to court software developers in 2025 as it develops the technology, CNBC reported earlier this month. A consumer version of the headset.
Patton said the excitement and buzz surrounding Meta’s prototype Orion AR glasses and how they fit into the company’s long-term strategy appears to have surpassed that of Apple and its rival Vision Pro VR headset, which debuted earlier this year and starts at $3,500 Crockett is a managing director and senior research analyst at Rosenblatt Securities.
“Orion presented an interesting vision, and they executed it much better than Apple, which no one believed was possible,” Crockett said.
Meta also hopes to further enhance the appeal of Meta smart glasses developed in partnership with Ray-Ban. Essilor Luxottica. Crockett noted that due to the positive response to Ray-Ban Meta glasses, the devices “could become a popular gift this Christmas.”
watch: Despite Meta’s heavy spending on artificial intelligence, its revenue still has room to grow.
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