Is Meta Platforms Stock a Smart Buy Before Q3 Earnings Report?

Meta Platforms META is set to report its third-quarter 2025 results on Oct. 29.META expects total revenues between $47.5 billion and $50.5 billion for the third quarter of 2025. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter revenues is pegged at $49.43 billion, indicating an increase of 21.8% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure. The consensus mark for earnings stands at $6.60 per share, up a couple of cents over the past 30 days, suggesting growth of 9.5% from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.Consensus Estimate Trend Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Meta Platforms’ earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 20.47%.  Meta Platforms, Inc. Price and Consensus Meta Platforms, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Meta Platforms, Inc. Quote Let’s see how things have shaped up for the upcoming announcement.Strong Advertising Growth to Aid META’s Q3 ResultsMETA is riding on strong advertising revenue growth prospects. Meta Platforms’ advertising revenues are expected to benefit from strong spending by advertisers as they leverage its growing AI prowess despite macroeconomic uncertainties. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter 2025 advertising revenues is currently pegged at $48.5 billion, suggesting 21.6% year-over-year growth. Meta Platforms’ offerings — Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Threads — currently reach more than three billion people daily. Their staggering reach and increasing ad impressions (up 11% year over year in the second quarter of 2025) make META one of the most important players in the digital ad sales market, apart from Alphabet GOOGL and Amazon AMZN. According to eMarketer, global ad spending is expected to rise 7.4% to reach $1.17 trillion in 2025, with Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Amazon accounting for roughly two-thirds of new ad spending.META has been leveraging AI and machine learning to boost the potency of its social-media offerings, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and Threads. META is frequently introducing new features across its platforms to drive more conversation and user engagement. The company is using Meta AI (currently used by more than one billion people) to boost user experience.However, rising expenses related to investments in developing more advanced models and AI services are expected to keep margins under pressure. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Family of Apps’ operating income is pegged at $24.86 billion, indicating 14.1% year-over-year growth.The Reality Labs business continues to burn cash, which doesn’t bode well for META’s third-quarter results. The consensus mark for Reality Labs’ loss is pegged at $5.58 billion, wider than the year-ago quarter’s loss of $4.43 billion.META Shares Outperform Sector, Lag IndustryMETA shares have jumped 25.3% year to date (YTD), outperforming the Zacks Computer & Technology sector’s appreciation of 22.9%. Shares have underperformed Alphabet but outperformed Amazon and Snap SNAP. YTD, Alphabet and Amazon shares have climbed up 34.7% and 0.4%, respectively, while Snap shares have declined 26.9%.META Stock Outperforms Sector Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Meta Platforms’ current valuation is stretched, as suggested by the Value Score of D.In terms of the forward 12-month price/sales, META is trading at 8.35X, higher than the broader sector’s 6.88X, Snap’s 2.08X, Alphabet’s 8.31X and Amazon’s 3.07X.META Shares are Pricey 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 3.48 billion daily users. Meta Platforms has been leveraging AI to improve the potency of its platform offerings, including Threads, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook. Meta AI usage continues to increase, with roughly one billion monthly users globally. META’s growing footprint among young adults, driven by improving recommendations, boosts its competitive prowess against the likes of Snap. AI usage is making it a popular name among advertisers. Meta Platforms’ focus on improving advertisers’ return on ad spending is noteworthy. 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 has been a key catalyst.Meta Platforms has been focusing on improving security across its platforms, which improves user engagement. META has introduced features and new anti-scam tools in WhatsApp to combat scammers. For Facebook, the company launched passkeys on Facebook for mobile devices, which now allows users to verify their identity and log in to their account more securely compared with traditional passwords. The introduction of Teen Accounts has been a key catalyst in boosting security on Instagram. META has expanded Teen Accounts to Facebook and Messenger platforms. The company recently announced that Instagram Teen Accounts will be guided by PG-13 movie ratings by default.ConclusionMETA’s use of AI across its platforms bodes well for its user engagement. This, along with an improved recommendation tool, continues to help advertisers in ad targeting, thereby driving top-line growth. Meta Platforms is spending heavily on expanding AI infrastructure, which bodes well for future prospects. These positive factors justify a premium valuation. Meta Platforms currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), which implies that investors should start accumulating the stock right now. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.Zacks Names #1 Semiconductor StockThis under-the-radar company specializes in semiconductor products that titans like NVIDIA don't build. It's uniquely positioned to take advantage of the next growth stage of this market. And it's just beginning to enter the spotlight, which is exactly where you want to be.With strong earnings growth and an expanding customer base, it's positioned to feed the rampant demand for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Internet of Things. Global semiconductor manufacturing is projected to explode from $452 billion in 2021 to $971 billion by 2028.See This Stock Now for Free >>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 Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): Free Stock Analysis Report Snap Inc. (SNAP): Free Stock Analysis Report Meta Platforms, Inc. (META): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks