Meta Platforms Falls 9% on Soft Guidance as Wall Street Slashes Price Targets

Quick Read

• Meta Platforms' EPS missed by 13% arsenic full costs surged 55%, sending shares down 9% and escaped currency travel to adjacent zero.

• META fell 9% portion MSFT jumped 15% arsenic investors rewarded wide AI monetization and punished Meta's $145 cardinal capex commitment.

• Ten firms slashed META stock's terms people overnight, with Wells Fargo cutting from $835 to $640 connected constricted visibility into AI monetization beyond advertising.

• Act now: the expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 AI stocks — and Meta didn't marque the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) are down 9% successful aboriginal Thursday trading to $530 and change, aft Meta's Q2 2026 results released Wednesday aft the adjacent failed to calm concerns astir the company's ballooning AI concern bill.

The determination follows a Wednesday adjacent of $585.61 and extends what was already a unsmooth twelvemonth for Meta Platforms stock, which was down 11% twelvemonth to day heading into the report. On a one-year basis, Meta Platforms shares are present disconnected 16%.

Bottom-Line Miss and Soft Guide Trigger the Selloff

Meta Platforms delivered Q2 gross of $60.8 billion, up 28% twelvemonth implicit twelvemonth and up of the $60.2 cardinal consensus. The company's advertizing gross besides came successful up astatine $59.3 billion.

However, Meta Platforms' diluted net per stock (EPS) of $6.18 missed the $7.14 to $7.22 range, down 13% twelvemonth implicit year. The company's full costs and expenses jumped 55% to astir $42 billion, including $2.4 cardinal successful ineligible charges and $1.18 cardinal of severance tied to May's headcount reduction.

Furthermore, Meta Platforms raised the debased extremity of its 2026 capex scope to $135 cardinal to $145 billion, and offered Q3 2026 gross guidance of $61 cardinal to $64 billion, a midpoint beneath Wall Street's expectations. Q2 capex of $31.08 cardinal shrank escaped currency travel to $784 cardinal from astir $8.6 cardinal a twelvemonth earlier. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors there's "nowhere adjacent capable compute for each the demand."

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Wall Street Slashes Meta Platforms Price Targets

Ten large firms chopped their Meta Platforms terms people overnight, though astir kept bullish ratings. Barclays moved to $780 from $830 (Overweight), Bank of America to $810 from $835 (Buy), Citi to $800 from $850 (Buy), and Goldman Sachs to $725 from $815.

The cuts got sharper further down the list. Guggenheim went to $700 from $800, KeyBanc to $780 from $790, Piper Sandler to $785 from $800, UBS to $715 from $766, and Wells Fargo to $640 from $835. JPMorgan chopped to $640 from $725 and remained the lone Neutral. The shared concern: constricted visibility into monetizing AI compute walk beyond advertising, positive a increasing capex, free-cash-flow, and instrumentality connected invested superior (ROIC) overhang.