Meta stock suffers steepest weekly drop on record amid ‘colossal’ spending plans

Shares of Meta Platforms Inc. suffered their largest weekly plunge on record this week as the company’s third-quarter earnings report met a chilly reception on Wall Street. The stock lost 23.7% over the course of the week. The prior worst weekly drop for Meta shares was a 21.4% decline sustained in the week that ended Feb. 4, 2022. Meta saw revenue decline in its latest quarter as costs rose, and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company would plow forward with big investments in the metaverse and other areas. “We do not expect META shares to see any relief in the near term,” MKM Partners analyst Rohit Kulkarni wrote in a Thursday note to clients, noting that the company has “colossal” spending plans. “However, with healthy engagement, we think META may have turned a monetization corner” as the company has seen growing contirbutions from Messaging ads, Reels, and WhatsApp. Meta shares have lost more than 70% on the year as the S&P 500 has declined 18%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.