Meta stock tumbled nearly 9% Thursday on its disappointing earnings report – extending a record losing streak – even as Microsoft and chipmaker stocks soared.
Menlo Park, Calif.-based Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – said Wednesday that its free cash flow has plunged 91% over the past year to $784 million, as it plans to spend as much as $145 billion this year on memory chips and data centers.
During Meta’s earnings call Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg failed to provide a clear timeline on when that massive capex will start generating returns – and in the meantime, Meta’s second-quarter earnings and its forecast for the current quarter missed Wall Street estimates.
“Right now, the narrative from Mark Zuckerberg is a little light on detail and relying on what could be done in the future,” Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot, said in a note Thursday.
“Meta still has a crucial role to play in the AI world, but it is still finding its way somewhat and that is why we see both costs and revenues looking a little volatile.”
The stock is down 12.5% over the past week and on track to hit 11 days in the red, its longest-ever losing streak.
In the second quarter, Meta reported earnings per share of $6.18 on revenue of $60.8 billion, missing Wall Street expectations of earnings of $7.14 a share on $60.2 billion in revenue.
It expects revenue in the current quarter to reach $61 billion to $64 billion, or a middle point of $62.5 billion. That again missed estimates of $63.15 billion.
Reports that Meta could start selling off excess computing power pushed the stock higher earlier this month as traders hoped the plan could help the company recover some of the billions it has sunk into the new tech.
Zuckerberg said Wednesday that Meta is “getting a lot of offers for compute at a significant premium” over what the company paid for it, but he did not share details on how the company might start selling off its trove of coveted compute.
He also reiterated that Meta will need to hold onto compute for its own AI ambitions.
For weeks, tech and chip stocks have suffered choppy trading sessions amid mounting fears around a potential “AI bubble” and concerns that China’s own technology is catching up to American rivals.
But on Thursday, Microsoft’s stock soared after an upbeat earnings report and other AI chip stocks rose – signaling that investors are still hopeful that other companies in the AI trade could win big.
Shares of Microsoft jumped 17% after it reported 43% growth in its Azure cloud business and fourth-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates.
It also said it now has more than 30 million paid seats for Microsoft 365 Copilot, its AI work assistant – up from 20 million in April, a sign that its own $190 billion in AI spending is starting to pay off.
The stock is on track for its best day since March 13, 2020, even after it signaled it might ramp up spending further in its 2027 fiscal year.
Meanwhile, chip stocks including AMD, Broadcom and Nvidia jumped 13.3%, 4.2% and 2%, respectively.
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