Meta shares fall more than 3% despite revenue beating analyst estimates

Key Facts

Meta shares fell more than 3% ahead of the market open on Thursday, October 22, 2026, according to an update from Investing.com, despite third-quarter revenue beating analyst estimates. Quarterly revenue reached $64.60 billion, according to the Associated Press, as the company faced legal settlement costs and revised its annual capital spending estimates. Revenue rose 26% from the third quarter of the previous year, when it stood at $51.24 billion. Analysts had expected revenue of $63.34 billion, below the company's reported figure for the period. Results were hit by a $9.89 billion settlement charge tied to teen mental health lawsuits, according to the news agency. Meta said earnings per share would have been $7.40 excluding the charge from its third-quarter results. The charge relates to a settlement agreement in teen lawsuits, a separate matter from the civil penalties imposed by a New Mexico court over Facebook's practices.

The New Mexico Department of Justice announced that a court order issued on October 21 required Facebook to pay $25 billion in civil penalties. The department said the penalties were imposed for violations of the state's Unfair Practices Act in the case linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The penalties followed a jury verdict on the company's liability, which found that "Facebook committed 43,899,725 violations of New Mexico law," according to the department's statement. The jury's findings included misleading statements the company made about data privacy as part of its practices that went to trial following the scandal. Those findings also extended to Facebook's statements about misinformation and hate speech, according to the department's statement on the jury verdict.

In its artificial intelligence business, Zuckerberg said during the third-quarter earnings call that more than 10 million people in the United States and Canada had created accounts to use the "Muse" agent, according to the Associated Press. He added that about 25% of those who created accounts use it daily. On spending, Meta narrowed its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $135–145 billion, according to Investing.com. The company had previously expected capital spending of between $130 billion and $145 billion for the year. It thus raised the lower end of its spending estimates while leaving the upper end unchanged. For the fourth quarter of 2026, Meta expects revenue of between $73 billion and $76 billion, according to the Associated Press. The revenue forecast range for the coming period exceeds the third-quarter total of $64.60 billion.