April 29, 2026
, /PRNewswire/ -- Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META) today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2026.
"We had a milestone quarter with strong momentum across our apps and the release of our first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs," said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO. "We're on track to deliver personal superintelligence to billions of people." First Quarter 2026 Financial Highlights Three Months Ended March 31, % Change In millions, except percentages and per share amounts 2026 2025 Revenue $ 56,311 $ 42,314 33 % Costs and expenses 33,439 24,759 35 % Income from operations $ 22,872 $ 17,555 30 % Operating margin 41 % 41 % Provision (benefit) for income taxes(1) $ (5,021) $ 1,738 NM Effective tax rate (1) (23) % 9 % Net income $ 26,773 $ 16,644 61 % Diluted earnings per share (EPS)(1) $ 10.44 $ 6.43 62 % ____________________________________ NM — not meaningful (1) Includes an $8.03 billion income tax benefit recognized in the first quarter of 2026, which partially offsets the $15.93 billion non-cash tax charge recorded in the third quarter of 2025 upon enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. This benefit is the result of U.S. Treasury Notice 2026-7, which addressed the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax treatment of previously capitalized U.S. research and development costs. Excluding this tax benefit, our effective tax rate would have been 37 percentage points higher and our diluted earnings per share (EPS) would have been $3.13 lower. First Quarter 2026 Operational and Other Financial Highlights ____________________________________ (1) For more information on our free cash flow non-GAAP financial measure, see the sections entitled "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" and "Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Results" in this press release. CFO Outlook Commentary We expect second quarter 2026 total revenue to be in the range of $58-61 billion. Our guidance assumes foreign currency is an approximately 2% tailwind to year-over-year total revenue growth, based on current exchange rates. We expect full year 2026 total expenses to be in the range of $162-169 billion, unchanged from our prior outlook. We continue to expect to deliver operating income this year that is above 2025 operating income. We anticipate 2026 capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, to be in the range of $125-145 billion, increased from our prior range of $115-135 billion. This reflects our expectations for higher component pricing this year and, to a lesser extent, additional data center costs to support future year capacity. Absent any changes to our tax landscape, we expect our tax rate for the remaining quarters of 2026 to be between 13-16%. Lastly, we continue to monitor active legal and regulatory matters, including headwinds in the EU and the U.S. that could significantly impact our business and financial results. For example, we continue to see scrutiny on youth-related issues and have additional trials scheduled for this year in the U.S., which may ultimately result in a material loss. Webcast and Conference Call Information Meta will host a conference call to discuss its results at 2:30 p.m. PT / 5:30 p.m. ET today. The live webcast of the call can be accessed at the Meta Investor Relations website at investor.atmeta.com, along with the company's earnings press release, financial tables, and slide presentation. Following the call, a replay will be available at the same website. Transcripts of conference calls with publishing equity research analysts held today will also be posted to the investor.atmeta.com website. Disclosure Information Meta uses the investor.atmeta.com and meta.com/news websites as well as Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook profile (facebook.com/zuck), Instagram account (instagram.com/zuck) and Threads profile (threads.net/zuck) as means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. About Meta Meta is building the future of human connection, powered by artificial intelligence and immersive technologies. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward experiences that foster deeper connections and unlock new possibilities. Contacts Investors: Press: Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding our future business plans and expectations. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual results due to a variety of factors including: the impact of macroeconomic conditions on our business and financial results, including as a result of geopolitical events; our ability to retain or increase users and engagement levels; our reliance on advertising revenue; our dependency on data signals and mobile operating systems, networks, and standards that we do not control; changes to the content or application of third-party policies that impact our advertising practices; risks associated with new products and changes to existing products as well as other new business initiatives, including our artificial intelligence initiatives and Reality Labs efforts; our emphasis on community growth and engagement and the user experience over short-term financial results; maintaining and enhancing our brand and reputation; our ongoing privacy, safety, security, and content and advertising review and enforcement efforts; competition; risks associated with government actions that could restrict access to our products or impair our ability to sell advertising in certain countries; litigation and government inquiries; privacy, legislative, and regulatory concerns or developments; risks associated with acquisitions; security breaches; our ability to manage our scale and geographically-dispersed operations; and market conditions or other factors affecting capital return to stockholders. These and other potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted are more fully detailed under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on January 29, 2026, which is available on our Investor Relations website at investor.atmeta.com and on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Additional information will also be set forth in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026. In addition, please note that the date of this press release is April 29, 2026, and any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. We undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events. For a discussion of limitations in the measurement of certain of our community metrics, see the section entitled "Limitations of Key Metrics and Other Data" in our most recent quarterly or annual report filed with the SEC. Non-GAAP Financial Measures To supplement our condensed consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP), we use the following non-GAAP financial measures: revenue excluding foreign exchange effect, advertising revenue excluding foreign exchange effect, and free cash flow. The presentation of these financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. Investors are cautioned that there are material limitations associated with the use of non-GAAP financial measures as an analytical tool. In addition, these measures may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies, limiting their usefulness for comparison purposes. We compensate for these limitations by providing specific information regarding the GAAP amounts excluded from these non-GAAP financial measures. We believe these non-GAAP financial measures provide investors with useful supplemental information about the financial performance of our business, enable comparison of financial results between periods where certain items may vary independent of business performance, and allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in operating our business. Our non-GAAP financial measures are adjusted for the following items: Foreign exchange effect on revenue. To calculate revenue on a constant currency basis, we translate current period revenue using the prior year's monthly exchange rates for our settlement or billing currencies other than the U.S. dollar, which we believe is a useful metric that facilitates comparison to our historical performance. Purchases of property and equipment; Principal payments on finance leases. We subtract both purchases of property and equipment, and principal payments on finance leases in our calculation of free cash flow because we believe that these two items collectively represent the amount of property and equipment we need to procure to support our business, regardless of whether we procure such property or equipment with a finance lease. We believe that this methodology can provide useful supplemental information to help investors better understand underlying trends in our business. Free cash flow is not intended to represent our residual cash flow available for discretionary expenditures. For more information on our non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures, see the "Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Results" table in this press release. META PLATFORMS, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (In millions, except per share amounts) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31, 2026 2025 Revenue $ 56,311 $ 42,314 Costs and expenses: Cost of revenue 10,218 7,572 Research and development 17,699 12,150 Marketing and sales 2,908 2,757 General and administrative 2,614 2,280 Total costs and expenses 33,439 24,759 Income from operations 22,872 17,555 Interest and other income (expense), net (1,120) 827 Income before income taxes 21,752 18,382 Provision (benefit) for income taxes (5,021) 1,738 Net income $ 26,773 $ 16,644 Earnings per share: Basic $ 10.57 $ 6.59 Diluted $ 10.44 $ 6.43 Weighted-average shares used to compute earnings per share: Basic 2,534 2,527 Diluted 2,564 2,590 META PLATFORMS, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (In millions) (Unaudited) March 31, 2026 December 31, 2025 Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 23,426 $ 35,873 Marketable securities 57,754 45,719 Accounts receivable, net 17,470 19,769 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 11,115 7,361 Total current assets 109,765 108,722 Non-marketable equity investments 28,410 27,524 Property and equipment, net 194,776 176,400 Operating lease right-of-use assets 23,268 20,404 Goodwill 24,748 24,534 Other assets 14,283 8,437 Total assets $ 395,250 $ 366,021 Liabilities and stockholders' equity Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 13,326 $ 8,894 Operating lease liabilities, current 2,414 2,213 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 31,013 30,729 Total current liabilities 46,753 41,836 Operating lease liabilities, non-current 25,607 22,940 Long-term debt 58,748 58,744 Long-term income taxes 16,849 21,005 Other liabilities 3,612 4,253 Total liabilities 151,569 148,778 Commitments and contingencies Stockholders' equity: Common stock and additional paid-in capital 99,337 95,793 Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) (303) 271 Retained earnings 144,647 121,179 Total stockholders' equity 243,681 217,243 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 395,250 $ 366,021 META PLATFORMS, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (In millions) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31, 2026 2025 Cash flows from operating activities Net income $ 26,773 $ 16,644 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 5,999 3,900 Share-based compensation 6,032 4,147 Deferred income taxes 123 (993) Unrealized (gain) loss on equity investments 1,075 (135) Other (17) (96) Changes in assets and liabilities: Accounts receivable 2,128 2,804 Prepaid expenses and other current assets (2,424) 360 Other assets (1,082) (52) Accounts payable (937) (1,034) Accrued expenses and other current liabilities (271) (2,231) Other liabilities (5,173) 712 Net cash provided by operating activities 32,226 24,026 Cash flows from investing activities Purchases of property and equipment (18,997) (12,941) Purchases of marketable securities (32,978) (11,763) Sales and maturities of marketable securities 19,176 4,784 Purchases of non-marketable equity investments (544) (100) Payments for held-for-sale assets (118) — Acquisitions of businesses and intangible assets (372) (1) Other investing activities 155 11 Net cash used in investing activities (33,678) (20,010) Cash flows from financing activities Taxes paid related to net share settlement of equity awards (4,423) (4,883) Repurchases of Class A common stock — (12,754) Payments for dividends and dividend equivalents (1,346) (1,329) Principal payments on finance leases (843) (751) Other financing activities 59 222 Net cash used in financing activities (6,553) (19,495) Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and 7 112 Net decrease in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and restricted cash (7,998) (15,367) Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and restricted cash equivalents at beginning 39,100 45,438 Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and restricted cash equivalents at end $ 31,102 $ 30,071 Reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and restricted cash Cash and cash equivalents $ 23,426 $ 28,750 Restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents, included in prepaid expenses and 340 71 Restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents, included in other assets 7,336 1,250 Total cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and restricted cash equivalents $ 31,102 $ 30,071 Supplemental cash flow data Cash paid for income taxes, net $ 541 $ 448 Segment Results We report our financial results for our two reportable segments: Family of Apps (FoA) and Reality Labs (RL). FoA includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and other services. RL includes our virtual and augmented reality related consumer hardware, software, and content. The following table sets forth our segment information of revenue and income (loss) from operations: Segment Information (In millions) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31, 2026 2025 Revenue: Advertising $ 55,024 $ 41,392 Other revenue 885 510 Family of Apps 55,909 41,902 Reality Labs 402 412 Total revenue $ 56,311 $ 42,314 Income (loss) from operations: Family of Apps $ 26,900 $ 21,765 Reality Labs (4,028) (4,210) Total income from operations $ 22,872 $ 17,555 Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Results (In millions, except percentages) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31, 2026 2025 GAAP revenue $ 56,311 $ 42,314 Foreign exchange effect on 2026 revenue using 2025 rates (1,749) Revenue excluding foreign exchange effect $ 54,562 GAAP revenue year-over-year change % 33 % Revenue excluding foreign exchange effect year-over-year change % 29 % GAAP advertising revenue $ 55,024 $ 41,392 Foreign exchange effect on 2026 advertising revenue using 2025 rates (1,734) Advertising revenue excluding foreign exchange effect $ 53,290 GAAP advertising revenue year-over-year change % 33 % Advertising revenue excluding foreign exchange effect year-over-year change % 29 % Net cash provided by operating activities $ 32,226 $ 24,026 Purchases of property and equipment (18,997) (12,941) Principal payments on finance leases (843) (751) Free cash flow $ 12,386 $ 10,334 SOURCE Meta
Meta Reports First Quarter 2026 Results
Kenneth Dorell
investor@meta.com / investor.atmeta.com
Matt Tye
press@meta.com / meta.com/news
restricted cash equivalents
equivalents
of the period
of the period
equivalents to the condensed consolidated balance sheets
other current assets
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