Meta Earnings Explained: When Meta Reports and What to Read

A big company's quarterly report is a long document full of numbers, yet within minutes most people have seen only one of them. A headline says the company beat or missed, the share price jumps or drops, and the rest of the report waits for whoever goes looking.

That one number can mislead. A one-time tax bill or legal charge can make profit look far worse than the business behind it, and a tax refund can make it look far better. The forecast in the headline usually comes from analysts, while the company's own forecast, made three months earlier, rarely gets a mention.

Reading a report well means checking a few figures against what the company itself said to expect, then setting aside the items it names as one-offs. The release, the slides and the call all come out on the same evening, so the work takes less time than it sounds.

Meta Platforms reports four times a year, after Nasdaq's regular session has ended, so the first reaction comes while the share trades only in thin after-hours sessions. On BloFin, Meta is available as tokenized shares on the METAX/USDT Spot market and as a leveraged contract, the METAUSDT Perpetual, and both start pricing a report within minutes.

What are Meta earnings?

Meta earnings are the quarterly results Meta Platforms publishes just after Nasdaq's 4PM ET close, followed the same evening by a call with analysts. The latest report, for the second quarter of 2026, came out on July 29, with the call at 4.30PM ET. It showed revenue of $60.8 billion, up 28% from a year earlier (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).

Each report is really a set of documents that arrive over about three hours. Meta posts them on its investor site, investor.atmeta.com, and the records of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show when each filing came in (source: SEC filing record for the 8-K). Here is the order on July 29, 2026.

The release and the Form 8-K are easy to mix up, but they are different sources. The 8-K is a cover form whose Item 2.02 says the release is "furnished" as Exhibit 99.1, and it carries almost no numbers of its own (source: SEC Form 8-K). So when you quote a figure, quote the exhibit, which is the release itself. The 10-Q follows later the same evening and holds the detail behind each line, such as the notes on legal cases (source: SEC Form 10-Q filing record).

Results are one of the main forces behind what moves Meta's stock price. That is why the date of the next report matters so much to anyone holding the share or the token.

When is Meta's next earnings date?

Meta's next earnings date is Wednesday, October 21, 2026. Meta will release its third-quarter results after Nasdaq's 4PM ET close that day and hold its call at 4.30PM ET (source: Meta third-quarter 2026 date notice). It announced the date on October 12, and Stock Analysis now lists October 21 as confirmed (source: Stock Analysis).

Meta confirms each date in a short press release titled "Meta to Announce" and the quarter. In 2026 those notices came 9 to 16 days before the results, counted from the dates on Meta's own list (source: Meta press releases).

The four reports before it landed on the last Wednesday of January, April, July or October, which is why calendars showed October 28 until Meta's notice arrived, a week later than the real date. Last year's third-quarter notice gave the terms: results after the close on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, and a call at 4.30PM ET the same day (source: Meta Q3 2025 date notice). The call time can change from one report to the next, and the April 29, 2026 call started at 5.30PM ET (source: Meta Q1 2026 results). Only the notice fixes the date and the time.

The five numbers to read in a Meta report

Five numbers tell you most of what a Meta report says. They are revenue against the range Meta gave three months earlier, ad impressions and the average price per ad, profit in Meta's two segments, the new spending outlook, and daily active people. The second quarter of 2026 shows how each one reads.

Revenue against Meta's own range

Every Meta release ends with a revenue range for the next quarter, so the first check is where revenue landed inside it. For the second quarter of 2026, Meta had guided in April to $58 billion to $61 billion. It then reported $60.8 billion, close to the top (source: Meta Q1 2026 results) (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).

The same check over four quarters shows a habit. Meta's revenue has landed close to or above the top of the range it set a quarter earlier (source: Meta Q2 2025 results) (source: Meta Q3 2025 results) (source: Meta Q4 2025 results).

So a result in the middle of the range would be weaker news than it sounds. Checking revenue against Meta's range, and not only against analysts' estimates, also tells you whether the company read its own business well.

Ad impressions and average price per ad

Almost all of Meta's revenue comes from ads, and Meta splits ad growth into two parts. One is how many ads it showed, called ad impressions, and the other is the average price it charged for each. In the second quarter of 2026 impressions rose 14% and the average price per ad rose 12% from a year earlier (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).

Ad revenue growth is roughly impressions growth and price growth multiplied together.

For the second quarter of 2026 that works out to 1.14 times 1.12, or growth of about 27.7%, close to the 27% rise in ad revenue Meta reported. The two parts move in different ways from quarter to quarter (source: Meta Q3 2025 results) (source: Meta Q4 2025 results) (source: Meta Q1 2026 results).

Which part is doing the work matters. Susan Li told analysts that better ad results, a stronger economy and currency moves lifted the price per ad. Fast growth in places where ads sell for less held the average down (source: Meta Q2 2026 earnings call). Meta's advertising business explains what drives each part.

Profit in Meta's two segments

Meta reports two segments, and they tell opposite stories. The Family of Apps segment covers Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, and it makes nearly all the profit. Reality Labs covers headsets and AI glasses, and it loses money every quarter. In the second quarter of 2026 the apps segment made $23.4 billion of operating income, while Reality Labs lost $4.6 billion (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).

Read the two apart, because the total can hide what each is doing. Reality Labs lost $6.0 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, its largest loss in the nine quarters on Meta's latest slides (source: Meta Q2 2026 slides). A weaker total that quarter said more about spending on headsets and glasses than about the apps. Meta's Reality Labs covers what the segment builds and why it keeps losing money.

Expense and capital spending outlook

The outlook at the end of each release often matters more than the quarter just reported, because it shows what Meta plans to spend. In July 2026 Meta raised the bottom of its full-year expense range to make room for $2.4 billion of legal charges, giving $165 billion to $169 billion. It also narrowed its 2026 capital spending range to $130 billion to $145 billion (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).

Look at three things in each update: which way the range moved, the reason Meta gives, and whether it still expects full-year operating income to beat the year before, a promise Meta repeated in July. Capital spending is the range Meta has changed most in 2026. It started the year at $115 billion to $135 billion, rose to $125 billion to $145 billion in April and was narrowed in July (source: Meta Q4 2025 results) (source: Meta Q1 2026 results). Meta's AI capex and cash flow shows how that spending eats into the cash left for shareholders.

Daily active people

Daily active people, or DAP, counts the people who use at least one of Meta's apps on an average day. It reached 3.6 billion in June 2026, up 3% from a year earlier (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). Growth this slow is normal at that size, so the useful signal is a drop. In March 2026 DAP slipped from December's level, which Meta put down to internet outages in Iran and limits on WhatsApp in Russia (source: Meta Q1 2026 results).

Reported and underlying results

Reported results follow US accounting rules and include everything. Underlying results set aside items the company names as one-offs, such as a tax charge or a legal settlement. Meta publishes no adjusted profit line, but when an item is large, its release or its call says what profit would have been without it, and those are the figures to use.

Meta has named one-off items in three of its last four quarters (source: Meta Q3 2025 results) (source: Meta Q1 2026 results) (source: Meta Q2 2026 earnings call).

The first quarter of 2026 is the mirror case. An $8.0 billion tax benefit, linked to new US Treasury guidance, partly offset the earlier charge (source: Meta Q1 2026 results). It made earnings per share look 62% higher than a year before, when the underlying rise was about 14%. A report can flatter the business as easily as it can hurt it.

The second quarter of 2026 carried two named costs: legal charges of $2.4 billion and severance pay of $1.2 billion for staff cut in May. Without them, CFO Susan Li said, operating income would have risen 9% from a year earlier, against the 8% fall Meta reported (source: Meta Q2 2026 earnings call).

Two smaller adjustments are worth a glance. The tax rate swings with one-off items, and in July Meta guided to a rate of 15% to 17% for the rest of 2026. Constant-currency growth removes exchange-rate moves, so second-quarter revenue grew 28% as reported and 27% at last year's exchange rates (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).

Why did Meta miss third-quarter 2025 earnings?

Meta's earnings per share fell 83% to $1.05 in the third quarter of 2025 because of a one-time, non-cash tax charge of $15.9 billion. The charge was linked to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a US tax law. Without it, earnings per share would have been $7.25, up about 20% from $6.03 a year earlier, worked out (source: Meta Q3 2025 results).

Non-cash means no money left Meta that quarter. The charge cut the value of future tax savings Meta had already recorded on its balance sheet. Revenue still grew 26% (source: Meta Q3 2025 results), so a reader who stopped at the profit headline saw a collapse where the business had grown. The share still fell sharply the next day. The same release said capital spending would grow by a "notably larger" dollar amount in 2026 than in 2025 (source: Meta Q3 2025 results), and coverage of the fall put that spending outlook first (source: Motley Fool).

How METAX and the share reacted to the last two reports

Meta's share fell sharply after its April and July 2026 reports, and METAX on BloFin showed most of each fall within an hour. By 5PM ET on July 29, 2026, METAX traded 7.8% below Meta's Nasdaq close that day. The share itself closed 8.0% lower the next day, worked out from BloFin's hourly prices and Yahoo Finance (source: Yahoo Finance July prices).

BloFin's METAX/USDT market trades 24 hours a day on weekdays (source: BloFin xStocks risk disclosure), so it was open through both report nights. METAX trading hours against Nasdaq's shows which market is open at each hour of a report night.

In April the first hour told only part of the story. METAX was 5.3% below the close by 5PM ET, about 61% of the next day's 8.6% fall. It kept drifting lower overnight until it sat within 0.3% of Nasdaq's opening price (source: Yahoo Finance April prices). In July the first hour carried almost all of the move. The share then opened 10.2% lower and recovered to close down 8.0%, so the lowest prices of the night overshot (source: Yahoo Finance July prices).

Volume shows why the first prices deserve care. In the first hour after the July release, 22.5 METAX changed hands on BloFin, against 193.8 METAX in the last hour of Nasdaq's session. That is a drop of 88%, and in April the drop was 97%. A price set by a few trades is an early read of the report, and the release itself is the better guide to what changed.

If you plan to hold a position through a report, trading Meta around earnings walks through the night hour by hour. Price gaps while Nasdaq is closed explains how a gap can carry a price past your stop.

On the next report night, the METAX/USDT Spot page shows each hour's price and volume as trades come in, while the METAUSDT Perpetual page shows the contract's last price and funding.

What to read in Meta's third-quarter 2026 report

Start Meta's third-quarter 2026 report with its revenue range of $61 billion to $64 billion (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). That is growth of 19.0% to 24.9% on the same quarter of 2025, worked out (source: Meta Q3 2025 results). Meta expects the report to carry a legal expense of about $10 billion for its settlement with state attorneys general, announced in August (source: Meta settlement announcement).

Three settlement numbers need keeping apart. The roughly $10 billion is an expense Meta expects to book in the third quarter, so it cuts that quarter's reported operating income all at once. The payment itself totals about $18 billion, spread over ten annual installments, so the cash leaves slowly. About $12.7 billion goes to the states, while the other $5.3 billion is released only once YouTube and TikTok bring in the same kind of limits for teens and each pay a matching sum (source: Meta settlement announcement).

Meta said the charge was outside the expense range it gave in July, and that its other guidance was unchanged (source: Meta settlement announcement). So the full-year expense range is one of the first lines to check. Set the charge aside, and the rest of the report can be read like any other quarter.

Fourth-quarter revenue is the one figure with no earlier range to check it against, because Meta gives that range for the first time in this report. It is Meta's first word on the final quarter of the year, which makes it one of the first numbers to read.

Looking to follow Meta's next report as it happens? To get started, you'll need to first create a BloFin account, fund your account with cryptocurrency, and go to the METAX/USDT Spot trading page or the METAUSDT Perpetual trading page.

Frequently asked questions

Does Meta give earnings per share guidance?

Meta's outlook covers revenue for the next quarter and, for the full year, total expenses, capital spending and the tax rate, plus a line on whether operating income will beat the year before. It gives no forecast for earnings per share or net income (source: Meta Q4 2025 results). Any earnings per share estimate you see comes from analysts, so a beat or a miss against it measures their forecast, not Meta's own range.

Does Meta report adjusted earnings per share?

Meta's only non-GAAP measures are revenue and ad revenue without exchange-rate effects, and free cash flow. Each is matched to the reported figure in a table at the end of the release (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). Earnings per share appear only as reported figures, basic and diluted, with diluted earnings per share in the headline table. When a data site lists a different figure for a quarter, check whether it has removed a one-off item that Meta described in the text of its release.

How much profit does Meta make in a year?

Meta's net income for 2025 was $60.5 billion, down 3% from 2024, on revenue of $201.0 billion. Diluted earnings per share were $23.49, and operating income, before interest and tax, was $83.3 billion. The fall in net income came from the third-quarter tax charge, since Meta's tax rate for the year was 30%, against 13% without the charge (source: Meta Q4 2025 results).

Does Meta announce its dividend with its earnings?

In 2026 Meta has declared each quarterly dividend in its own press release, on February 12, May 28 and September 10, weeks after the results each time (source: Meta press releases). The gap was 15 days in February, 29 in May and 43 in September, worked out, so the dividend news and the results news reach the price on different days. Meta's dividend explains how much Meta pays a share and when.

What is Meta's earnings follow-up call?

On results day Meta holds a second call after the main one, a question-and-answer session in which CFO Susan Li takes more questions from equity research analysts. Meta posts transcripts of both calls on its investor site next to the release, the slides and a replay of the webcast (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). For the second quarter of 2026 both calls took place on July 29, the evening of the release.

Researched and written by the BloFin Academy editorial team with AI-assisted drafting. All facts independently verified. Primary sources include Meta's quarterly results releases, earnings slides, call transcript, date notices (including the third-quarter 2026 notice), press release list, and settlement announcement, Meta's Form 8-K and Form 10-Q filing records and third-quarter 2025 exhibit at the SEC, Yahoo Finance daily prices and Stock Analysis. BloFin's sources are its METAX/USDT hourly market data and its xStocks risk disclosure, current as of October 2026.

Nothing in this article constitutes financial advice, and nothing in it is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold Meta in any form. Meta's share fell about 8% or more the day after each of its April and July 2026 reports, and METAX moved most of that distance within an hour of the release, on a small number of trades. A position held through a report can open the next day far from where it stood at the close, past any stop you have set, and a leveraged perpetual position can be liquidated in a move of that size. Past performance does not indicate future results. Do your own research and consider your risk tolerance before you trade on BloFin.