Meta Platforms Stock Before Q4 Earnings: To Buy or Not to Buy?

Meta Platforms META is set to report its fourth-quarter 2024 results on Jan. 29.Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.It expects total revenues between $45 billion and $48 billion for the fourth quarter of 2024. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter revenues is pegged at $46.97 billion, indicating an increase of 17.09% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.The consensus mark for earnings stands at $6.90 per share, up 2.07% over the past 30 days, suggesting growth of 29.46% from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter. Meta Platforms, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise Meta Platforms, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Meta Platforms, Inc. Quote Meta Platforms’ earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 11.34%.Let’s see how things have shaped up for the upcoming announcement.Strong Advertising to Aid META’s Q4 ResultsMETA is riding on strong advertising revenue growth prospects. In the third quarter of 2024, advertising revenues increased 18.6% year over year to $39.89 billion, accounting for 98.3% of revenues. At constant currency, advertising revenues increased 23% year over year.Meta Platforms’ advertising revenues are expected to benefit from strong spending by advertisers as they leverage its growing AI prowess. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter 2024 advertising revenues is currently pegged at $45.43 billion, suggesting 17.38% year-over-year growth. Meta Platforms’ offerings — WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook — currently reach more than three billion people daily. Their staggering reach and increasing ad impressions (up 7% year over year in the third quarter of 2024) make META one of the most important players in the digital ad sales market, apart from Alphabet’s GOOGL Google and YouTube.META has been leveraging AI and machine learning to boost the potency of its social-media offerings, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Threads. Effective usage of AI has been helping the company keep its users engaged. AI-driven feed recommendations have been a key catalyst. However, rising expenses related to investments in developing more advanced models and AI services are expected to keep margins under pressure. The Reality Labs business continues to burn cash, which doesn’t bode well for META’s near-term prospects.META Shares Outperform Sector, IndustryMETA shares have appreciated 61.4% in the trailing 12 months, outperforming the Zacks Computer & Technology sector’s return of 27.4% and the Zacks Internet Software Industry’s 32.5% growth.Meta Platforms shares have also outperformed most of its “Magnificent 7” peers, including Apple AAPL, Alphabet, Amazon AMZN and Microsoft. NVIDIA and Tesla are the only Magnificent 7 stocks that have outperformed META shares over the same timeframe. Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla and NVIDIA shares have returned 16.2%, 30.4%, 45.6%, 8.4%, 112.9% and 128.3%, respectively.META Stock Performance Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Meta Platforms stock is not so cheap, as the Value Score of D suggests a stretched valuation at this moment.In terms of the forward 12-month Price/Sales, META is trading at 8.65X, higher than the broader sector’s 7.14X and its median of 6.75X.Price/Sales (F12M) Image Source: Zacks Investment Research META Leverages AI to Boost GrowthAI is heavily dependent on data, of which META has a trove, driven by its more than 3.2 billion daily users. Meta Platforms has been leveraging AI to improve the potency of its platform offerings, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook.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 Platforms focuses on improving advertisers’ return on ad spending. Andromeda, its proprietary machine learning system, improves the performance of the company’s advertising system by delivering more personalized advertisements to viewers. The deployment of META’s deep neural network on the NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchip across Instagram and Facebook applications has achieved more than 6% recall improvement to the retrieval system while delivering more than 8% ad quality improvement on selected segments.Advantage+ is helping advertisers streamline campaign management and boost performance through more ads in the system for different audiences. AI is helping META retain advertisers who are leveraging its generative AI-powered image expansion, background generation and text generation tools to boost business. META estimates that businesses using Image Generation are seeing a 7% increase in conversions.Despite concerns over the monetization of its AI services in the near term and extending regulatory concerns, META’s growth prospects are huge, driven by the growing adoption of its services. A Growth Score of B reflects this enormous opportunity for investors.ConclusionMETA’s use of AI bodes well for its near-term and long-term prospects. However, a stretched valuation and growing regulatory issues are a concern.Meta Platforms currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), suggesting that investors should wait for a favorable point to accumulate the stock. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Zacks' Research Chief Names "Stock Most Likely to Double"Our team of experts has just released the 5 stocks with the greatest probability of gaining +100% or more in the coming months. Of those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian highlights the one stock set to climb highest.This top pick is among the most innovative financial firms. With a fast-growing customer base (already 50+ million) and a diverse set of cutting edge solutions, this stock is poised for big gains. Of course, all our elite picks aren’t winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Nano-X Imaging which shot up +129.6% in little more than 9 months.Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners UpWant 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 Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report Apple Inc. (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): Free Stock Analysis Report Meta Platforms, Inc. 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