Earnings spotlight: Meta Platforms (Third-quarter results after Wednesday’s close )

Meta Platforms (META, $312.81) has delivered a stellar performance on the stock market this year, with its shares soaring more than 160%.

However, the pace slowed down slightly in the third quarter, with META stock gaining only 4.6% in the three months ending September 30.

Beyond the stock price, however, analysts are anticipating that the Facebook parent will report impressive growth on both its revenue and earnings when it releases its third-quarter results after Wednesday’s close.

The current consensus is that META will reveal earnings of $3.45 per share (+110.4% YoY) on revenue of $31.9 billion (+14.9% YoY).

Meta is “benefitting from improving digital ad market, ramping Reels monetization and improving artificial intelligence-driven ad measurement,” says BofA Securities analyst Justin Post (Buy).

However, the main catalyst for the communication services stock will be its fourth quarter revenue outlook, Post adds, saying he expects it to be robust due to an acceleration in e-commerce ad spending and higher monetization of Reels and messaging.