Meta Q3 Revenue Hits $64.6 Billion, Up 26% and Above Forecasts, as a Roughly $9.9 Billion Legal Charge Weighs on Reported Profit
Meta Platforms reported third-quarter 2026 results after the close on October 21: total revenue rose 26% year over year to $64.6 billion, above the roughly $63.3 billion analysts polled by FactSet had expected. Advertising revenue was about $63.1 billion, and the Family of Apps segment — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — posted revenue of about $64.2 billion.
Profitability was weighed down by a one-time charge. Meta booked a legal charge of about $9.9 billion in the quarter tied to its August multi-state settlement of teen social-media addiction cases, leaving reported earnings of $3.83 per share and operating income of about $13 billion, both below earlier forecasts. Excluding the charge, the company said earnings would have been $7.40 per share. Reality Labs, its virtual and augmented reality unit, recorded revenue of about $440 million and an operating loss of about $4.1 billion, narrower than the roughly $5.1 billion loss expected.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company hit major milestones toward delivering personal superintelligence, including launching Muse and Muse Wonder, its first frontier models, adding that the core business is strong and the company is seeing velocity across the board.
For the fourth quarter, Meta guided revenue of $73 billion to $76 billion, with the midpoint above the roughly $73.6 billion consensus. It raised its full-year expense outlook to $175 billion to $179 billion to reflect the legal charge and narrowed its capital expenditure range to $135 billion to $145 billion, saying it will keep investing aggressively in its core business and SI in 2027. Meta also announced a new non-voting Class C common stock, effective in January. Shares rose more than 2% in after-hours trading.
Related: Preview: Meta Q3 Earnings Due After Wednesday's Close
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Meta 首席执行官扎克伯格（2025 年 9 月，白宫官方照片，公共领域），经维基共享资源。 / Photo: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in September 2025. Official White House photo by Andrea Hanks, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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