Equity Analysis

NASDAQ: META · Technology

Meta Platforms, Inc.

Meta Platforms operates the world's largest family of social apps — Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger — monetized almost entirely through advertising. Under CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company is investing heavily in AI (recommendation systems, generative AI features, Llama models) and Reality Labs (AR/VR, the metaverse bet), funded by an advertising business with exceptional margins and cash generation.

AI social media advertising dividend metaverse
LAST PRICE
$543.67
▼ 25.30 (4.45%) today
52w: $520.26 – $790.80
Market cap $1.4T
P/E ratio 23.1x
Volume 26.6M
Next earnings 2026-01-28
FY2025 — Fiscal Year Ended December 2025
Revenue $201.0B +22.2%
Net Income $60.5B -3.0%
EPS (diluted) $23.49 -1.6%
EBITDA Margin 50.7% -0.9pp
CapEx $69.7B +87.0%
7.7
Score /10
Growth ↑
7.4/10
Margins ↑
9.2/10
Fin.Health ↑
8.3/10
Valuation →
6.0/10
Dividends ↓
4.3/10
Risks ↑
7.5/10
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Financials & ratios
2013–2025 · last column shows CAGR or average
Metric 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 CAGR / ø
Growth
Revenue 7,872 12,466 17,928 27,638 40,653 55,838 70,697 85,965 117,929 116,609 134,902 164,501 200,966 +31.0%/y
Net income 1,500 2,940 3,688 10,217 15,934 22,112 18,485 29,146 39,370 23,200 39,098 62,360 60,458 +36.1%/y
EPS 0.6 1.1 1.29 3.49 5.39 7.57 6.43 10.09 13.77 8.59 14.87 23.86 23.49 +35.7%/y
Gross margin % 76.18 82.73 84.01 86.29 86.58 83.25 81.94 80.58 80.79 78.35 80.76 81.67 82 ø 81.9
Operating margin % 35.62 40.06 34.72 44.96 49.7 44.62 41 38.01 39.65 24.82 34.66 42.18 41.44 ø 39.3
Profit margin % 19.05 23.58 20.57 36.97 39.2 39.6 26.15 33.9 33.38 19.9 28.98 37.91 30.08 ø 29.9
ROIC % 10.18 11.46 9.18 19.56 23.31 27.2 21.95 22.71 27.72 15.82 22.1 28.53 21.77 ø 20.1
Cash
Cash from ops 4,222 7,326 10,320 16,108 24,216 29,274 36,314 38,747 57,683 50,475 71,113 91,328 115,800 +31.8%/y
CapEx -1,362 -1,831 -2,523 -4,491 -6,733 -13,915 -15,102 -15,163 -18,690 -31,186 -27,045 -37,256 -69,691 +38.8%/y
Free cash flow 2,860 5,495 7,797 11,617 17,483 15,359 21,212 23,584 38,993 19,289 44,068 54,072 46,109 +26.1%/y
FCF yield % 2.16 2.69 2.66 3.53 3.42 4.05 3.62 3.03 4.12 5.97 4.84 3.64 2.77 ø 3.6
Balance sheet
Total equity 15,470 36,096 44,218 59,194 74,347 84,127 101,054 128,290 124,879 125,713 153,168 182,637 217,243 +24.6%/y
Cur. assets 13,070 13,390 21,652 34,401 48,563 50,480 66,225 75,670 66,666 59,549 85,365 100,045 108,722 +19.3%/y
Cur. liabilities 1,100 1,424 1,925 2,875 3,760 7,017 15,053 14,981 21,135 27,026 31,960 33,596 41,836 +35.4%/y
Current ratio 11.88 9.4 11.25 11.97 12.92 7.19 4.4 5.05 3.15 2.2 2.67 2.98 2.6 ø 6.7
Debt/equity % 3.08 0.65 0.71 0 0.46 0.59 10.22 8.3 11.11 21.15 24.31 26.86 38.62 ø 11.2
Net debt/EBITDA -0.87 -0.69 -0.58 -0.6 -0.33 -0.33 -0.54 -0.44 -0.3 -0.13 -0.41 -0.18 0.22 ø -0.4
Shareholder & valuation
Dividend / share 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2.11 –
Payout % (DPS/EPS) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8.4 9 ø 1.3
Shares outst. (M) 2,547 2,778 2,834 2,892 2,906 2,854 2,852 2,849 2,741 2,614 2,561 2,534 2,530 -0.1%/y
Sust. growth % 62.27 63.51 46.43 64.96 57.25 58.21 37.85 43.82 53.53 34.48 53.24 61.91 49.2 ø 52.8
P/E 88.17 69.37 79.55 32.24 32.13 17.13 31.69 26.72 24.05 13.94 23.3 23.79 27.52 ø 37.7
EV/EBITDA 31.79 30.94 33.69 20.31 20.26 11.57 15.59 18.4 16.68 8.22 15.24 17.14 16.35 ø 19.7
Price / book 41.87 33.44 29.97 15.2 15.06 9.02 10.52 10.07 13.57 4.99 11.1 14.47 13.73 ø 17.2
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Charts
Trends across all years
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Business Overview
What they do & how they make money

Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly Facebook, Inc.) was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and has grown into the world's largest social media company, operating Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Under Zuckerberg's continued leadership, the company generates the vast majority of its revenue from digital advertising across its Family of Apps, while investing heavily in two long-term bets: AI (recommendation algorithms, generative AI features, the open-source Llama model family) and Reality Labs (augmented and virtual reality hardware and software, the company's metaverse initiative). Reality Labs has operated at a substantial loss for years, funded entirely by the highly profitable advertising business.

Revenue by segment
Family of Apps (Advertising)
97%
Reality Labs
3%
Revenue
$201B
FY2025
Gross Margin
82.0%
FY2025
FCF
$46.1B
FY2025
Net Debt/EBITDA
0.22x
FY2025, first net-debt year
ROIC
21.8%
FY2025
Dividend
2 yrs
Since FY2024, already raised once
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Fair Value
Where does $543.67 sit?
BUY
FAIR
EXPENSIVE
$470 $540 $610 $702+
Below $540 — undervalued
$540–610 — fairly valued
Above $610 — rich
🛡
Risk Assessment
Headwinds vs tailwinds
⚠AI/infrastructure capex nearly doubled from $37.3B (FY2024) to $69.7B (FY2025), pushing the balance sheet from net-cash to a net-debt position ($22.9B) for the first time in the company's history as a public company
✓Gross margin of 82% and EBITDA margin of 50.7% are the strongest of any name covered so far — the advertising engine behind Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp remains exceptionally profitable at scale
⚠Net margin fell to 30.1% from 37.9% on a large one-time tax charge (effective tax rate jumped to 29.6% from 11.75%) — worth confirming this doesn't recur before assuming margins have structurally reset
✓Revenue grew 22.2% YoY to $201.0B (FY2025) — reacceleration rather than deceleration, unusual for a company already this large
⚠Reality Labs (AR/VR/metaverse) continues to be a significant loss-making segment funded by the profitable advertising business — the long-term payoff remains unproven after years of investment
✓ROIC of 21.8% remains well above the cost of capital even after declining from FY2024's 28.5% peak — still strong capital efficiency despite the AI capex surge
⚠Revenue is almost entirely dependent on digital advertising — a single-revenue-stream concentration risk shared with Google/Alphabet, sensitive to ad-market cyclicality and platform/privacy regulation
✓Initiated its first dividend in FY2024 and already raised it to $2.11/share in FY2025 — a young but growing income stream layered on top of the core growth story
⚠Regulatory scrutiny (EU Digital Markets Act, ongoing antitrust matters, data privacy enforcement) is a persistent overhang, similar to the pressure facing Alphabet and other large platform companies
✓Valuation at 27.5x earnings sits mid-pack of Meta's own post-2022 recovery range — not a bargain, but reasonable given the margin structure and growth reacceleration
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Analyst Verdict
Bull case, bear case & final call
Buy
🐂 Bull case
Gross margin of 82% and EBITDA margin of 50.7% are the strongest of any name covered so far — the advertising engine behind Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp remains exceptionally profitable at scale
Revenue grew 22.2% YoY to $201.0B (FY2025) — reacceleration rather than deceleration, unusual for a company already this large
ROIC of 21.8% remains well above the cost of capital even after declining from FY2024's 28.5% peak — still strong capital efficiency despite the AI capex surge
Initiated its first dividend in FY2024 and already raised it to $2.11/share in FY2025 — a young but growing income stream layered on top of the core growth story
Valuation at 27.5x earnings sits mid-pack of Meta's own post-2022 recovery range — not a bargain, but reasonable given the margin structure and growth reacceleration
🐻 Bear case
AI/infrastructure capex nearly doubled from $37.3B (FY2024) to $69.7B (FY2025), pushing the balance sheet from net-cash to a net-debt position ($22.9B) for the first time in the company's history as a public company
Net margin fell to 30.1% from 37.9% on a large one-time tax charge (effective tax rate jumped to 29.6% from 11.75%) — worth confirming this doesn't recur before assuming margins have structurally reset
Reality Labs (AR/VR/metaverse) continues to be a significant loss-making segment funded by the profitable advertising business — the long-term payoff remains unproven after years of investment
Revenue is almost entirely dependent on digital advertising — a single-revenue-stream concentration risk shared with Google/Alphabet, sensitive to ad-market cyclicality and platform/privacy regulation
Regulatory scrutiny (EU Digital Markets Act, ongoing antitrust matters, data privacy enforcement) is a persistent overhang, similar to the pressure facing Alphabet and other large platform companies
Bottom line: Meta is a Stalwart compounder with the best margin profile of any name covered so far — 82% gross margin and 50.7% EBITDA margin on a $201.0B revenue base that grew 22.2% in FY2025. ROIC of 21.8% remains strong, though down from FY2024's 28.5% peak. Like MSFT, GOOGL and AMZN, Meta's AI infrastructure buildout is now large enough to move the balance sheet: capex nearly doubled from $37.3B to $69.7B, flipping the company from net-cash to a modest net-debt position for the first time. Net margin dipped to 30.1% from 37.9%, but this reflects a large one-time tax charge (effective tax rate jumped to 29.6% from 11.75%), not operating deterioration — operating margin actually held roughly flat. Meta initiated its first dividend in FY2024 and has already raised it. At 27.5x earnings, valuation sits comfortably within Meta's own post-2022 recovery range — reasonable for the growth, margins, and cash generation on offer.
Key statistics
Price $543.67
Market cap $1.4T
Revenue (latest) $201.0B
Net income $60.5B
Free cash flow $46.1B
EPS (latest) $23.49
P/E ratio 23.1x
EV/EBITDA 16.35x
FCF yield 3.4%
Dividend yield 0.39%
DPS $2.11
Div. streak 2+ yrs
Gross margin 82.0%
Op. margin 41.4%
Net margin 30.1%
ROIC 21.8%
Net debt/EBITDA 0.22x
Next earnings 2026-01-28