What you need to know

Meta Platforms (META) ended the latest trading session at $533.28, up 1.65% from the previous day's close. The stock outperformed the S&P 500, which posted a daily gain of 0.13%. At the same time, the Dow gained 0.55%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.52%.

Heading into today, shares of the social media company had lost 0.53% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 1.56% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.67% in that time.

The investment community will be closely watching Meta Platforms' performance in its upcoming earnings report. The company is expected to report earnings per share of $5.15, up 17.31% from the year-ago quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $40.08 billion, up 17.38% from the year-ago period.

For the year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $21.36 per share and revenue of $161.62 billion, which would represent year-over-year changes of +43.64% and +19.8%, respectively.

Investors should also pay attention to recent changes in analyst estimates for Meta Platforms. These changes help to highlight the constant change in near-term business trends. Positive estimate changes, therefore, convey analysts' confidence in the company's business development and earnings potential.

Our research suggests that these estimate changes are directly related to future stock price movements. Investors can take advantage of this by using the Zacks Rank. This model takes these estimate changes into account and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Earnings per share estimate has moved 0.45% higher. Meta Platforms currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Meta Platforms is currently trading at a P/E ratio of 24.56. The industry average is 30.42, so one could conclude that Meta Platforms is trading at a comparative discount.

It is also important to note that META currently has a PEG ratio of 1.29. This metric is used similarly to the well-known P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. When the market closed yesterday, the Internet Software industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.02.

The story continues

The Internet Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry, which currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 87, ranks in the top 35% of all 250+ industries.

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

Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep an eye on all of these and other stock-moving metrics in the coming trading sessions.

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Meta Platforms, Inc. (META): Free Stock Analysis Report

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