From Coinpedia · By Steve Muchoki
Story HighlightsMETA stock surged 4% in the after hours after its Q3 earnings report revealed a 26% surge in revenue to an all-time high of $64.60 billion.
The August $9.89B legal charge tied to its prominent teen mental health case has eaten into EPS and caused higher projections on this year's spending.
Meta projects even higher revenue of up to $76B for Q4, confident in its ad and AI revenue models.
Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: META) had today released its earnings report, highlighting a 26% surge in revenue year-over-year, causing shares to rise 4% in the after hours.
Meta Q3 2026 earnings report
One of the biggest highlights was its 26% surge in revenue year-over-year, bringing in an all-time high of $64.60 billion against an estimated $63.37 billion. The spike was mainly driven by surging demand for its core social media-linked advertising services and the introduction of premium ad pricing.
Meanwhile, capital expenditure (CapEx) for that quarter reached $34.91 billion, up from $31.08 billion in the previous quarter following investments in AI.
On the downside, Meta’s earnings per share (EPS) came in at $3.83, slightly above the Wall Street estimate of $3.56 but below adjusted core earnings of $7.40. Meta missed this mark following its record-breaking $9.89 billion legal charge tied to its high-profile August 2026 teen mental health litigation.
META stock reaction
Following the earnings report release, META was trading at $733.18, up 5.11% in the after hours. This implied greater investor focus on the company’s ad revenue statistics, as compared to its legal battles. This positive sentiment has also been influenced by the company’s reassurance over AI infrastructure deployment.
Source: MarketWatch
Shares are also up 5.67% year-to-date (YTD), and 15.08% in the past three months. With a market cap of $1.77 trillion, Meta remains one of America’s “Big Five” tech companies, and the 8th most valuable company in the world.
90% of analysts recommend a Buy or Strong Buy for META stock, with an average price target of $814.51 to $828.28 (18%-18% upside from the current price).
Forward guidance and upcoming developments
Meta noted that the quarter’s record-breaking revenue may be short-lived. Confidence in its economic model now leads Meta to project Q4 2026 earnings to climb even higher to between $73 billion and $76 billion.
Even more, the company raises the lower floor of its full-year 2026 capital expenditures to between $135 billion and $145 billion. These figures are projected to rise to $175 billion – $179 billion due to the heavy legal charges.
Part of this spending will go into funding the company’s Muse AI infrastructure, including data centers and silicon chips. This is a move away from its loss-making virtual reality and hardware businesses, which have turned its cash flow negative (-$2.12 billion) for the first time since its 2012 IPO.