Quick Read – Meta’s Q2 EPS of $6.18 missed the $7.22 consensus by 14%, snapping a six-quarter beat streak as $2.40 billion in legal charges and severance costs hit results. – META free cash flow cratered 91% as Q2 capex hit $30 billion, compressing operating margins by 12…
rcentage points and raising questions about AI return on investment. – Meta must prove WhatsApp and Instagram AI agents generate enterprise SaaS revenue and that Zuckerberg signals a clear cap on infrastructure spending before the bull case holds. – Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Meta didn’t make the cut. Grab the names FREE today
At $585.61, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) sits at a crossroads. The stock just snapped a six-quarter EPS beat streak and reset investor expectations around AI spending, making conviction in either direction premature at this price. Meta owns the largest social advertising network on the planet, monetizing 3.60 billion daily active users across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads while pouring capital into Reality Labs and its Superintelligence Labs AI unit.
Q2 delivered $60.80 billion in revenue, up 27.96% year over year, but EPS of $6.18 missed the $7.22 consensus by 14.42%, weighed down by $2.40 billion in legal charges and $1.18 billion in severance from an 8,000-employee headcount reduction. Why the Ad Engine Still Justifies the Premium Advertising revenue rose 27% to $59.36 billion, powered by 14% impression growth and 12% higher pricing per ad. Prediction markets had expected 9% to 12% ad price growth, so pricing power beat the crowd.