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Meta Platforms (META) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Meta Platforms (META - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $213.07, moving +0.53% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.37%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.98%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.62%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the social media company had gained 14.41% over the past month. This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 10.71% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.71% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Meta Platforms as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Meta Platforms to post earnings of $2.12 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 22.06%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $27.48 billion, down 1.54% from the prior-year quarter.

META's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $10.22 per share and revenue of $121.95 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +3.97% and +4.58%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Meta Platforms. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 8.23% higher. Meta Platforms is holding a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) right now.

Digging into valuation, Meta Platforms currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 20.74. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 43.25.

Investors should also note that META has a PEG ratio of 1.95 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Internet - Software stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.74 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Internet - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 51, which puts it in the top 21% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow META in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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