If You Invested $1000 in Meta Platforms a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. This factor can impact your investment portfolio as well as help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.Another factor that can influence investors is FOMO, or the fear of missing out, especially with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.What if you'd invested in Meta Platforms (META) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to META for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?Meta Platforms' Business In-DepthWith that in mind, let's take a look at Meta Platforms' main business drivers. Meta Platforms is the world’s largest social media platform. The company’s portfolio offering evolved from a single Facebook app to multiple apps like photo and video sharing app Instagram and WhatsApp messaging app owing to acquisitions. Along with in-house developed Messenger, these apps now form Meta’s family of products used by almost 3.24 billion people on a daily basis as of Mar 31, 2024.Headquartered in Menlo Park, CA, Meta generated revenues worth $134.9 billion in 2023. Advertisement accounted for 97.8% of revenues. Marketers buy ads that can appear on multiple platforms including Meta, Instagram, Messenger and third-party applications and websites.Meta, thanks to its huge user base gained a significant market share in the advertising space wherein it faces tough competition from Google, Twitter, Amazon and Snapchat-parent Snap.Meta also faces significant competition from the likes of Apple (messaging), YouTube (advertising and video), Bytedance (social media) and Tencent (messaging and social media).Meta core app enables people to connect, share, discover and communicate with one other on mobile devices and personal computers. User engagement on core Meta platform is fostered by News Feed that displays an algorithmically-ranked series of stories and advertisements customized for each user.Instagram is a community for sharing photos, videos and messages, enabling people to discover interests that they care about. People can express themselves through photos, videos and private messaging via Instagram Feed and Stories.Messenger helps people to connect with friends, family, groups and businesses across platforms and devices. WhatsApp is a simple, reliable and secure messaging application, used by people and businesses around the world to communicate in a private way.Meta also offers virtual reality (VR) products through its Oculus division.Bottom LinePutting together a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of research, patience, and a little bit of risk. For Meta Platforms, if you bought shares a decade ago, you're likely feeling really good about your investment today.According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in December 2014 would be worth $7,617.22, or a 661.72% gain, as of December 19, 2024. Investors should keep in mind that this return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 184.89% and gold's return of 109.16% over the same time frame.Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for META. Meta is benefiting from steady user growth across all regions, particularly Asia Pacific. Increased engagement for its offerings like Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook has been a major growth driver. META has been leveraging AI to improve the potency of its platform offerings. These services currently reach more than 3.2 billion people daily. Meta’s growing footprint among young adults, driven by improving recommendations, boosts its competitive prowess. AI usage is making it a popular name among advertisers. This is expected to drive top-line growth. Meta now expects to invest significantly more over the next few years in developing more advanced models and the largest AI services in the world. However, monetization of these AI services will take considerable time, which is a concern. Over the past four weeks, shares have rallied 5.60%, and there have been 19 higher earnings estimate revisions in the past two months for fiscal 2024 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.Zacks Naming Top 10 Stocks for 2025Want to be tipped off early to our 10 top picks for the entirety of 2025?History suggests their performance could be sensational.From 2012 (when our Director of Research Sheraz Mian assumed responsibility for the portfolio) through November, 2024, the Zacks Top 10 Stocks gained +2,112.6%, more than QUADRUPLING the S&P 500’s +475.6%. Now Sheraz is combing through 4,400 companies to handpick the best 10 tickers to buy and hold in 2025. Don’t miss your chance to get in on these stocks when they’re released on January 2.Be First to New Top 10 Stocks >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Meta Platforms, Inc. (META): Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks