Meta reported Q3 2026 revenue of $64.6 billion, up 26.1% year over year and above estimates, and guided Q4 revenue to $73 billion to $76 billion. Excluding a large legal settlement charge, diluted EPS was $7.40. However, Meta narrowed its full-year capex outlook to $135 billion to $145 billion and lifted total expense guidance to $175 billion to $179 billion, pushing the stock down 3% to $677.20. Unlike Alphabet and Microsoft, which also rent cloud computing capacity to outside customers, Meta earns nearly all its revenue from advertising and must fund its data centers itself; it spent $34.9 billion on capex in the quarter, posted negative free cash flow of $2.12 billion, and saw operating margin fall to 20% from 40%. Ad impressions rose 10% and the average price per ad climbed 14%, while more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada set up Muse within six weeks, and management expects its cost efficiency to improve more than 10x in the next year.
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Related tickers and likely impact
META
▼ Likely negativeMeta Platforms
Relevance: high
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Communication Services |
| Industry | Interactive Media & Services |
| Market cap | $1.9T |
| Close on 10/21/2026 | 698.43 |
| Change that session | +0.60% |
GOOGL
▼ Likely negativeAlphabet Inc. (Class A)
Relevance: medium
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Communication Services |
| Industry | Interactive Media & Services |
| Market cap | $4.3T |
| Close on 10/21/2026 | 334.67 |
| Change that session | -1.65% |
QQQ
▼ Likely negativeInvesco QQQ Trust
Relevance: low
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | ETF |
| Close on 10/21/2026 | 725.21 |
| Change that session | +1.06% |
MSFT
• NeutralMicrosoft
Relevance: low
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Information Technology |
| Industry | Systems Software |
| Market cap | $4.0T |
| Close on 10/21/2026 | 532.81 |
| Change that session | +0.18% |
Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.
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