Yahoo Finance Meta Platforms (META) to Report Q1 Earnings: What to Expect
Meta Platforms META is set to report its first-quarter 2024 results on Apr 24.
The company expects total revenues between $34.5 billion and $37 billion for the first quarter of 2024.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter revenues is pegged at $36.22 billion, indicating an increase of 26.46% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.
The consensus mark for earnings stands at $4.32 per share, which has increased 1.17% over the past 30 days, suggesting growth of 63.64% from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.
Meta’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 19.71%.
Meta Platforms, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise
Meta Platforms, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Meta Platforms, Inc. Quote
Let’s see how things have shaped up for the upcoming announcement.
Factors to Note
Meta’s first-quarter top line is expected to have benefited from Facebook’s expanding user base (more than 3.065 billion monthly active users) and growing adoption of reels. Increased engagement for Meta’s its offerings like Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook has been a major growth driver.
Effective usage of AI has been helping the company keep its users engaged. AI-driven feed recommendations have been a key catalyst.
Reels have been a major growth driver for Instagram. Meta remains focused on growing Reels as part of its overall portfolio of video services, which make up more than half of time spent on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta has been leveraging gen AI to boost user experience across its apps. AI stickers, AI-based editing tools, advanced conversational assistant — Meta AI — and others to improve user engagement.
It has been experimenting with incorporating gen AI to help creators create different captions and thumbnails.
Meta has also started to roll out Reels in Meta AI chats. It is also exploring ways to make Facebook more attractive and fun-filled for users leveraging Meta AI.
Higher engagement levels are helping to steady its user growth across all regions, particularly Asia Pacific.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Asia Pacific Daily Active Users (DAUs) in the first quarter is pegged at 926 million, indicating 6.07% year-over-year growth. The consensus estimate for the Rest of World is expected to have increased 5% to 690 million DAUs.
Regarding Monthly Active Users (MAUs), the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Asia Pacific is pegged at 1.376 billion, suggesting 4% year-over-year growth. The consensus mark for the Rest of World’s MAUs is expected to have risen 4% to 1.025 billion MAUs.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Meta’s worldwide DAU is pegged at 2.13 billion, indicating 4.57% growth year over year. The consensus estimate for worldwide MAU is pegged at 3.087 billion, indicating a 3.3% year-over-year increase.
Nevertheless, Meta’s top line is expected to reflect the negative impact of the challenging macroeconomic environment and persistent inflation that is anticipated to have kept ad spending budgets under pressure. This is likely to have weighed on ad revenues in the to-be-reported quarter.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, Meta’s ad revenues represented 96.5% of total revenues, which increased 23.8% year over year to $38.71 billion.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter 2024 ad revenues is pegged at $35.59 billion, indicating 26.6% year-over-year growth.
What Our Model Says
Per the Zacks model, the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. That is the exact case here.
Meta has an Earnings ESP of +0.62% and currently has a Zacks Rank #2. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
Other Stocks to Consider
Here are a few other companies worth considering, as our model shows that these, too, have the right combination of elements to beat on earnings in their upcoming releases:
Vertiv VRT has an Earnings ESP of +1.24% and a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Vertiv shares have gained 68.7% year to date. VRT is set to report its first-quarter 2024 results on Apr 24.
Itron ITRI has an Earnings ESP of +5.88% and has a Zacks Rank of 2 at present.
Itron shares have gained 19.8% year to date. ITRI is set to report its first-quarter 2024 results on May 2.
Silicon Motion Technology SIMO has an Earnings ESP of +5.96% and has a Zacks Rank of 2 at present.
Silicon Motion shares have gained 19.6% year to date. SIMO is set to report its first-quarter 2024 results on May 2.
Stay on top of upcoming earnings announcements with the Zacks Earnings Calendar.
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Itron, Inc. (ITRI) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) : Free Stock Analysis Report
