Meta shares fall 6.5% as investors assess new share class and revised spending outlook
Key Facts
Meta shares fell 6.5% in early trading on Thursday, October 22, 2026, as investors assessed the implications of creating a new class of non-voting shares, according to Investing.com. That assessment included the potential dilution of shareholders' economic ownership in the future, as the company revises its capital spending outlook. The stock's move followed the release of third-quarter results, which showed continued quarterly revenue growth compared with the same period last year. Growth in the company's business coincided with an increase in the lower end of its expected capital spending for the year, within a range Meta narrowed without changing its ceiling. These developments follow a selloff in semiconductor shares that began before the company's results were announced, according to the sequence reported in Reuters coverage.
Meta reported revenue of $64.60 billion for the third quarter of 2026, up 26% year on year, according to Investing.com. Those results cover the quarter ended in September, while the capital spending revision applies to the full-year outlook. The company narrowed its spending range to between $135 billion and $145 billion, compared with a lower end of $130 billion in its previous forecast. The adjustment was therefore concentrated at the bottom of the range, while the upper end remained unchanged. The company's announcement combined revenue growth achieved during the quarter with an increase in the minimum amount it expects to spend on capital investment during the year, the two financial developments accompanying investors' assessment of the new share plan.
Against that trading backdrop, Reuters reported on Monday, October 19, that the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index had lost more than 11% during the previous week, with chip stocks among the hardest hit by the selloff linked to artificial intelligence. The sector's losses thus preceded Meta's reported quarterly results, as part of a correction encompassing stocks that had benefited from the rise of the AI trade. Even so, the chip index remained up 57% since the start of the year as of the Reuters report published on Friday, October 16. The agency compared that gain with a rise of nearly 12% in the S&P 500 over the same period, leaving chips ahead of the broader market for the year despite the correction. In Reuters coverage of its financial stability report, the International Monetary Fund warned of the wider impact of a decline in these stocks, saying: "The repercussions of a correction in AI stocks could be global." Alongside developments in technology stocks, Investing.com's coverage of Thursday's session linked escalating tensions in the Middle East to higher oil prices.
Looking ahead, Meta expects revenue for the fourth quarter of 2026 of between $73 billion and $76 billion, according to Investing.com. Its projected range for the final quarter of the year exceeds the revenue it generated in the third quarter. On its capital structure, the company intends to distribute one Class "C" share for every outstanding Class "A" or "B" share as part of its plan to create the new class. The new shares will carry no voting rights, a plan whose implications for economic ownership investors assessed during Thursday's trading. On the U.S. monetary policy calendar, the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee meets on October 27–28, 2026, according to the central bank's official schedule.