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Meta Platforms (META) guidance and outlook
Meta Platforms (META) raised its guidance on Oct 21, 2026: Revenue $73.0B–$76.0B for Q4 2026; Capital expenditures $135.0B–$145.0B for FY2026. Meta Platforms' 10-Q filed Oct 22, 2026 makes 26 forward-looking statements, 3 of them new and 1 no longer said since the filing before.
Guidance and outlook
Latest guidance
| Metric | Period | Range | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Q4 2026 | $73.0B–$76.0B | new |
| Capital expenditures | FY2026 | $135.0B–$145.0B | raised |
From the earnings release filed Oct 21, 2026 (8-K on EDGAR).
Forward-looking statements, 10-Q filed Oct 22, 2026
- We rely on targeting and measurement tools that incorporate data signals from user activity on websites and services that we do not control, as well as signals generated within our products, in order to deliver relevant and effective ads to our users.
- Our advertising revenue has been, and we expect will continue to be, adversely affected by reduced marketer spending as a result of limitations on our ad targeting and measurement tools arising from changes to the regulatory environment and third-party mobile operating systems and browsers.
- We expect these and other developments will have further impact in the future.
- As a result, we have implemented, and we will continue to implement, whether voluntarily or otherwise, changes to our products and user data practices, which reduce our ability to effectively target and measure ads and may negatively impact our advertising revenue and user engagement.
- For example, in response to regulatory developments in Europe, we announced our plans to change the legal basis for behavioral advertising on Facebook and Instagram in the European Union, European Economic Area, and Switzerland from "legitimate interests" to "consent," and began offering users in the region a "subscription for no ads" alternative.
- For example, in 2021, Apple made certain changes to its products and data use policies in connection with changes to its iOS operating system that reduce our and other iOS developers' ability to target and measure advertising, which has negatively impacted, and we expect will continue to negatively impact, the size of the budgets marketers are willing to commit to us and other advertising platforms.
- Across all of these efforts, we are making significant investments in artificial intelligence (AI), including generative AI, to improve our delivery, targeting, and measurement capabilities.
- We believe our ongoing improvements to ad targeting and measurement are continuing to drive improved results for advertisers.
- However, we expect that some of these efforts will be long-term initiatives, and that the legislative, regulatory and platform developments described above will continue to adversely impact our advertising revenue for the foreseeable future.
- Our ongoing efforts to enhance enforcement against ads and marketers which violate our advertising policies adversely affect our revenue, and we expect that the continued enhancement of such efforts will have an impact on our revenue in the future, which may be material.
- Other global and regional business, macroeconomic, and geopolitical conditions also have had, and we believe will continue to have, an impact on our user growth and engagement and advertising revenue.
- In addition, while Reels is growing in usage, it monetizes at a lower rate than our Feed and Stories products and we expect it will continue to monetize at a lower rate for the foreseeable future.
Meta Platforms' latest quarter
Meta Platforms, Q3 2026: revenue $64.6B (+26% year over year), operating margin 20.1%, net earnings $9.9B, operating cash flow $32.8B. The chart follows the revenue to costs, profit and cash.
Questions
Did Meta Platforms raise or lower its guidance?
Meta Platforms (META) raised its guidance on Oct 21, 2026: Revenue $73.0B–$76.0B for Q4 2026; Capital expenditures $135.0B–$145.0B for FY2026.
What does Meta Platforms expect?
For example, we have launched Muse, an agentic AI, which we intend to scale over time. During the nine months ended September 30, 2026, our RL segment reduced our overall operating profit by approximately $12.78 billion, and we expect our full-year 2026 RL operating losses to be approximately $18 billion to $19 billion. Provision for income taxes and our effective tax rate in the three months ended September 30, 2026 decreased compared to the same period in 2025, mostly due to the effects of the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) in the third quarter of 2025, partially offset
Updated Nov 8, 2026. Read automatically from SEC filings and public data; errors are possible. Not investment advice.