Meta Investor Relations – Stock Information.
When you see a headline like, “META Stock Jumps After Earnings,” what does that actually mean? It can feel like an exclusive club for Wall Street experts, but the information they’re using is available to everyone—including you.
Every public company has an official doorway to its financial data, known as an Investor Relations (IR) website. This is the single source of truth, free from media hype. For Meta, this digital hub is found at investor.fb.com, serving as the primary guide to its business health. It’s where the company speaks for itself.
The most important document you’ll find there is the quarterly earnings press release. Think of it as the company’s official report card, issued four times a year. This short summary is the direct source for almost every financial news story you see about the company’s performance.
This guide will show you exactly where to find that report card on the Meta Investor Relations site (see the image below) and the few numbers that truly tell the story, helping you decode the headlines for yourself.
The First Number That Matters: What is Meta’s Revenue?
When you first open one of Meta’s financial reports, the key is to focus on just a few important numbers. The first one you should look for is Revenue. Think of revenue as the company’s total salary for the year, before any taxes, rent, or other bills are paid. It’s the grand total of all the money that came in the door from selling its products and services. Reading Meta Platforms financial reports starts with this top-line figure.
For Meta, its main revenue sources are no secret—it’s advertising. The ads you see while scrolling through your Facebook and Instagram feeds are the engine of the business. In fact, advertising consistently makes up over 97% of the company’s total revenue. The remaining slice comes from other ventures, like sales of its Quest VR headsets, but the ads are what truly drive the numbers.
This business model generates a staggering amount of money. In 2023, for instance, Meta’s revenue was nearly $135 billion. But a high salary doesn’t tell the whole story; you also need to know about expenses. So, how much of that massive figure does Meta actually get to keep as profit? That’s the next critical piece of the puzzle.
From Billions in Sales to Actual Profit: Understanding Net Income and EPS
That massive $135 billion revenue figure is like a gross salary—it’s impressive, but it’s not what you take home. Just like individuals, companies have bills to pay. For Meta, these Expenses include everything from employee salaries and marketing budgets to the enormous cost of running its global data centers. After paying all these bills, the money left over is called Net Income, or more simply, profit. This is the company’s true “take-home pay,” and it’s a crucial number for understanding Meta’s stock performance.
To make that profit figure even more useful, experts break it down to a per-share level. This gives us Earnings Per Share (EPS). Think of it this way: if Net Income is a whole pizza, EPS tells you the size of a single slice. It’s calculated by taking the company’s total profit and dividing it by the total number of shares. This simple number helps you see exactly how much profit is being generated for each individual share of stock.
This little number—EPS—is a huge deal for anyone trying to decide if META stock is a good long-term investment. A consistently growing EPS is a strong sign that the company is becoming more profitable for its owners (the shareholders). When you hear news anchors say a company “beat earnings,” they are often referring to its EPS coming in higher than what financial analysts had predicted.
Now you have the two most important figures from Meta’s financial reports: the top-line number (Revenue) and the bottom-line numbers (Net Income and EPS). But seeing these numbers in isolation isn’t enough to know if they’re actually good.
How to Tell if Meta’s Numbers Are Good or Bad
Is a number like $135 billion in revenue actually good? By itself, it’s impossible to say. Think about your own salary. If you make $60,000 this year, that number becomes much more meaningful when you compare it to what you made last year. The same principle is the most important tool for analyzing Meta’s stock performance trends: comparison. A company’s financial health isn’t a snapshot; it’s a story told over time.
This is where a simple but powerful concept called Year-over-Year (YoY) growth comes in. It just means comparing a company’s performance in one period (like a quarter) to the same period from the previous year. This simple check tells you if the business is expanding or shrinking. You can do it yourself in three steps:
Find this quarter’s Revenue.
Find the Revenue from the SAME quarter LAST year.
Is the number bigger? That’s growth!
This method works for Revenue, Net Income, and EPS, giving you a clear picture of the company’s momentum.
Ultimately, growth is what gets investors excited. A company that consistently grows its revenue and profits is a company that’s succeeding, which often pushes its stock price up. Seeing positive YoY growth is a strong first step in deciding if META stock is a good long-term investment. While past performance provides essential context, investors are always asking, “What’s next?”
Beyond the Balance Sheet: What Are Meta’s Big Bets and Biggest Risks?
Financial reports aren’t just report cards; they’re also treasure maps pointing to the future. In these documents, companies give clues about their “forward-looking statements”—their plans, hopes, and biggest bets for growth. For Meta, this means looking beyond the apps we use today and into the world they’re trying to build tomorrow.
It’s helpful to think of Meta as two different businesses under one roof. The first is its “Family of Apps” (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), which is incredibly profitable. The second is “Reality Labs,” the division building the metaverse and virtual reality headsets. This part of the business is Meta’s massive wager on the future of digital interaction, and it is a very, very expensive bet to make.
This is where the numbers get interesting. While the Family of Apps brings in billions in profit, Reality Labs currently loses billions every single quarter. This is an intentional strategy, driven by Mark Zuckerberg’s vision, to invest heavily today for a potential payoff many years from now. These losses directly reduce Meta’s overall “take-home pay” (Net Income), which is critical context for understanding the stock’s performance.
But what if the bet doesn’t pay off? Companies are required to be upfront about what could go wrong. In their reports, they list major risks, which can range from fierce competition from rivals like TikTok to the threat of new government regulations. Reading this section gives you an honest, company-approved look at the hurdles Meta faces on its path to future growth.
How Meta Stacks Up: A Quick Stock Comparison with Google (GOOGL)
A company’s financial health doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The real insights emerge when you start to compare, like putting Meta next to its fellow tech giant, Google (Alphabet). At first glance, they look similar—both are advertising powerhouses. But digging just a little deeper reveals two very different game plans for the future.
This is where you can see their core strategies diverge. While Meta currently earns nearly all of its profit from its Family of Apps, Google has built more revenue diversification. Think of it as the business equivalent of having several strong sources of income versus relying on one big paycheck. Google’s Search, YouTube, and rapidly growing Cloud business all contribute significantly to its bottom line.
Ultimately, there’s no single “right” answer in a META vs GOOGL stock comparison; it simply highlights different paths. This is the kind of competitive analysis that helps you understand their unique stock performance trends and decide which story you find more compelling. To hear the leaders of these companies explain these choices in their own words, you need to listen in on their updates to investors.
You’re Ready for the Next Level: Earnings Calls and Shareholder Info
You no longer have to guess what’s behind the headlines. You now know exactly where to find Meta’s official report card and can confidently pull the two most important numbers: its total sales (Revenue) and its take-home pay (Net Income). This is the foundation of understanding the business behind the apps you use every day.
Ready to go a step further? The Investor Relations site also posts the Meta quarterly earnings call schedule, letting you listen in as leadership discusses the results. It’s the same place you’d find info on a Meta Platforms shareholder meeting or dive into understanding Meta’s stock buyback program.
Put your new knowledge into practice with this simple, four-step check-up.
Your First Analysis
Go to investor.fb.com.
Find the latest “Earnings Release.”
Note the Revenue and Net Income.
Compare them to the same quarter last year to see the trend.