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Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) develops products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets and wearables worldwide.
It is set to report its Q3 2024 earnings on October 30. Wall Street analysts expect the company to post an EPS of $5.21, up from $4.39 in the year-ago period. According to Benzinga Pro, quarterly revenue is expected to reach $40.13 billion, up from $34.15 billion in the previous year.
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The company’s stock traded at approximately $75.95 per share 10 years ago. If you had invested $10,000, you could have bought roughly 132 shares. Currently, shares trade at $576.93, meaning your investment’s value could have grown to $75,962 from stock price appreciation alone. However, Meta Platforms also paid dividends since the start of 2024.
Meta Platforms’ dividend yield is currently 0.35%. Over the last 10 years, it has made just three dividend payments for $1.50 per share, which means you could have made $197.50 from dividends alone.
Summing up $75,962 and $197.50, we end up with the final value of your investment, which is $76,159. This is how much you could have made if you had invested $10,000 in Meta Platforms stock 10 years ago. This means a total return of 661.59%. In comparison, S&P 500 total return for the same period is 248.76%.
Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a price target of $615.78 based on 43 analysts’ ratings. The price target implies a nearly 7% potential upside from the current stock price.
On July 31, the company announced its Q2 2024 earnings, posting revenues of $39.07 billion, beating analyst estimates of $38.31 billion, as reported by Benzinga. The company reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of $5.16 per share, beating analyst estimates of $4.73 per share.
Total revenues were up 22% year over year. Family daily active people were up 7% year over year to 3.27 billion. Ad impressions and average price per ad both jumped 10% year over year.
Meta expects third-quarter revenue to be $38.5 billion to $41 billion, versus estimates of $38.31 billion. The company still expects full-year 2024 total expenses to be $96 billion to $99 billion. It also expects full-year 2024 capital expenditures to be $37 billion to $40 billion, versus its prior guidance range of $35 billion to $40 billion.
“For Reality Labs, we continue to expect 2024 operating losses to increase meaningfully year-over-year due to our ongoing product development efforts and investments to further scale our ecosystem,” the company said.
Wall Street analysts lifted price targets on Meta stock ahead of Q3 earnings. Here’s Why.
Given the historical stock price appreciation and expected upside potential, growth-focused investors may find Meta Platforms stock attractive. Furthermore, they can benefit from the company’s modest dividend yield of 0.35%.
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