Meta stock sinks 10% on earnings miss, 'barely passable' quarter

What happened: Meta (META) stock plunged 10% in premarket trading on Thursday.

What's behind the move: The social media giant reported its second quarter results after the bell on Wednesday, missing on earnings per share but beating on revenue. The company also narrowed its planned capital expenditure range for 2026.

For the quarter, Meta reported earnings per share of $6.18 on revenue of $60.8 billion. Analysts were anticipating EPS of $7.14 and revenue of $60.2 billion, based on Bloomberg consensus estimates. Meta's advertising revenue came in at $59.3 billion versus expectations of $59.07 billion.

Importantly, the company raised the lower end of its capital expenditure estimates, increasing them to between $135 billion and $145 billion from $125 billion to $145 billion.

The company has said it plans to spend upward of $145 billion this year, with the bulk of that going to its data center build-out.

What else you need to know: Investors have been concerned about rising capital expenditures and dwindling cash flow, but Wall Street analysts were not impressed.

"The good news is that they only slightly increased capex. And their cash flow was slightly positive, and I mean slightly, so barely passable," Gil Luria of D.A Davidson told Yahoo Finance, adding that the company's revenue guidance came shy of expectations.

"They barely met the expectations for this quarter," he added.

Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @ines_ferre.

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