Meta Platforms (META) Reports $64.6 Billion Quarter With Settlement Charge

Third-Quarter Beat Overshadowed by a $9.89 Billion Charge

Meta Platforms (META) published its third-quarter 2026 results after the US close on Wednesday, October 21, pairing a clean top-line beat with a one-time charge of unusual size. Revenue reached $64.6 billion, a 26% increase over the year-ago quarter and ahead of the roughly $63.37 billion analysts had penciled in. The damage sits in the cost line: a $9.89 billion charge connected to the August settlement the company struck with state attorneys general over litigation concerning teenage mental health. Total expenses grew 68% year on year to $51.6 billion, which pushed operating income down 37% to $13 billion and compressed the operating margin from 40% a year earlier to 20%. Earnings per share printed at $3.83; the company puts the figure at $7.40 once the settlement charge is excluded. Net income of $9.86 billion was up 264%, though most of that jump traces to an unusually heavy tax burden in the comparable quarter a year earlier. Looking ahead, management guided fourth-quarter revenue to $73 billion to $76 billion and raised the full-year expense outlook to $175 billion to $179 billion to absorb the settlement. The company also announced an effective 1-for-2 stock split, assigning existing holders newly issued non-voting Class C shares. The stock finished the regular session at $697.52, up 0.47%, then moved about 3% above that close in extended trading, where trading volume typically runs lighter than the daytime session. Over the past year the shares have traveled between the low $520s and the high $770s, so the post-earnings bid carries the price toward the upper end of that band.

Capex, Muse Monetization and a California Filing

The spending outlook drew nearly as much attention as the revenue line. Meta lifted its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to $135 billion to $145 billion, from the prior range of $130 billion to $145 billion, against an analyst expectation near $138.27 billion; the money is directed at data centers and the hardware used to train the company's AI systems and run its assistants. Audience numbers came in slightly soft: daily active users across Facebook, Instagram and the group's other apps reached 3.64 billion, a touch below the 3.65 billion figure in StreetAccount's compiled consensus. The quarter's centerpiece in management's telling is Muse, the personal AI assistant released in September that delivered the company's strongest September for the shares since 2022, sorting email, searching the web and surfacing product deals for an audience measured in the billions. Zuckerberg followed it with Muse Wonder, a second model launched on Monday, October 19. In the company's results press release, he framed the pair as milestones: “We hit major milestones this quarter toward delivering personal superintelligence for everyone, including launching Muse and Muse Wonder, our first frontier model.” Monetization is the next step, with Meta planning to sell access to its foundation models and Muse Code and, in Zuckerberg's words, build “an entire network of business Muse agents” that small companies can run side by side, before extending the assistant into corporate environments. A separate regulatory filing added a personal dimension: it discloses that Zuckerberg could become liable for a significant, multi-billion-dollar tax payment on his shareholdings if California voters approve the Proposition 40 wealth tax. Meta responded with a stock-based compensation offer under which he committed to live in California, or the jurisdiction where the company keeps its headquarters, for eight years, with carve-outs for unforeseen circumstances.

Our desk's read: the after-hours pop has settled, and the live tape now frames the print. COINOTAG data shows the stock at $705.32, up 0.60% over the past day, inside a 24-hour range of $689.59 to $749.00. Our composite scoring rates the nearest resistance, at $749.55, 87 out of 100, and the nearest support, at $682.03, 91 out of 100, so both sides of the range carry strong readings. The daily trend remains an uptrend, though momentum is mixed: the relative strength index sits at 47.6 and the MACD signal is bearish. Open interest in the stock perpetual market, the structure we explain in our Bitget stock futures guide, stands at $36.88 million. A daily close above $749.55 would clear the strongest ceiling on our map; losing $682.03 would put the uptrend call itself under pressure.