Meta Platforms: Is It Too Late to Buy the Stock After This Year's 40% Rally?
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) stock soared by over nearly 40% since the beginning of the year, boosted by strong Q4 earnings results in February, better-than-expected guidance for Q1/24, alongside the announcement of an additional $50 billion in share repurchases, and the introduction of its first-ever dividend.
The rally comes on top of last year's 194% gain — mostly thanks to ongoing strength in AI-driven digital advertising and increased operational efficiency, which helped the giant consistently outperform EPS and revenue forecasts over the past four quarters.
Source: InvestingPro
Wall Street analysts raised their EPS estimates for the upcoming quarter from $2.46 to $4.30 per share over the past 12 months, representing a substantial increase of 74.9%.
Source: InvestingPro
A review of the fundamentals, however, suggests that investors may be overly optimistic.
Our ProTips highlight Meta's areas of concern alongside its strengths, pointing out issues such as its high earnings multiple, elevated revenue valuation multiple, and high price-to-book ratio.
Source: InvestingPro
InvestingPro's analysis on Fair Value anticipates a potential decline of 5.8% in Meta’s stock price. In contrast, Wall Street analysts are predicting a potential uptick of approximately 6.8%.
Source: InvestingPro
InvestingPro considers Meta's financial health to be “Great”, which is determined by ranking the company on over 100 factors against companies in the Communication Services sector and operating in Developed economic markets.
Source: InvestingPro
Recently, Meta faced challenges with Facebook's Marketplace, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, highlighting user dissatisfaction due to counterfeit listings, fraud, and mismatches between
Read more on investing.com
