The social media company known for Facebook and Instagram announced earnings per share (EPS) of $6.18 U.S., which was below the $7.22 U.S. forecast on Wall Street.
Revenue in the year’s second quarter totaled $60.80 billion U.S., which was slightly ahead of the $60.17 billion U.S. consensus expectation of analysts.
Meta’s Reality Labs unit that is focused on virtual reality technologies lost $4.6 billion U.S. in the year’s second quarter while generating $431 million U.S. in sales for the company.
In terms of guidance, Meta said it expects revenue in the current quarter of $61 billion U.S. to $64 billion U.S., or $62.5 billion U.S. at the midpoint.
That was below the $63.15 billion U.S. that Wall Street had penciled in for the company.
As for capital expenditures, Meta raised its guidance for the year to between $130 billion U.S. and $145 billion U.S., up from a previous range of $125 billion U.S. to $145 billion U.S.
Due to the money being spent on artificial intelligence (A.I.), Meta reported that its free cash flow fell to $784 million U.S. in the latest quarter from $8.55 billion U.S. a year earlier.
Executives at Meta Platforms said second-quarter costs and expenses totaled $42.03 billion U.S., an increase of 55% from the previous year.
Meta recently announced plans to build a $14 billion U.S. A.I. data centre in Texas and a $50 billion U.S. data centre in Louisiana.
Prior to today (July 30), META stock had declined 16% over the last 12 months to trade at $585.61 U.S. per share.
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