Meta Platforms (META) is diving in afterhours.
All after missing on its top and bottom lines, with a poor outlook.
EPS came in at $2.46, as compared to expectations for $2.59. Revenue of $28.82 billion was below estimate for $28.94 billion. Daily active users did increase to 1.97 billion, as compared to expectations for 1.96 billion. Monthly active users came in at 2.93 billion, as compared to estimates for 2.94 billion.
Meta also issued a poor third-quarter forecast, citing a “continuation of the weak advertising demand environment we experienced throughout the second quarter, which we believe is being driven by broader macroeconomic uncertainty.”
In addition, on the conference call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says: “Engagement trends on Facebook have generally been stronger than we anticipated, and strong real growth is continuing to drive engagement across Facebook and Instagram. That said, we seem to have entered an economic downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising business. And it’s always hard to predict how deep or how long these cycles will be, but I’d say that the situation seems worse than it did a quarter ago.”
That’s not really the news investors wanted to hear.
Since January, shares of META have now fallen from about $350 to $169.58. With nothing to get excited about just yet, we would avoid the stock.
META is down 3.7%, or $6.37 in afterhours trading.
