Every earnings season has a moment where a CEO says something that cuts through the noise.
Not a guidance range or a revenue beat
Something that reframes how investors are supposed to think about the company. Meta’s Q2 call on July 29 had one of those moments, and it didn’t come from the income statement. The numbers themselves were rough.
Earnings per share dropped 13% year over year to $6.18, missing Wall Street’s $7.10 consensus by nearly a dollar. Free cash flow fell almost 91% to just $784 million, down from $8.55 billion a year earlier. Capital expenditure hit $31.1 billion in the quarter alone, nearly double what Meta spent in the same period last year.