Facebook (META) Q3 2026 earnings results beat revenue expectations

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Meta's revenue figure continues to rise, even with the recent social media addiction lawsuit settlement figure factored in.

Ozzie Mejia October 21, 2026 1:28 PM Meta 1

Facebook parent company Meta has issued its quarterly earnings report for Q3 2026. The company finished ahead of analyst projections, finishing with a revenue figure of $64.601 billion USD. That's ahead of the analyst estimate of $63.38 billion. That's despite the social media giant's earnings-per-share (EPS) figure finishing below analyst estimates, coming in at $3.83/share versus the consensus analyst estimate projection of $4.98/share and whisper figure of $6.65/share.

"We hit major milestones this quarter toward delivering personal superintelligence for everyone - including launching Muse and Muse Wonder, our first frontier model," Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the Meta Q3 2026 earnings report. "Our investments are paying off, the core business is strong, and we're seeing velocity across the board."

It should be noted that Meta's $16.7 billion settlement from the recent high-profile social media addiction lawsuit has been factored into these earnings numbers. The Q3 2026 quarter took $9.89 billion of that settlement into account, noting that operational income went from $22.88 billion to $12.99 billion, the diluted EPS figure went from $7.40/share to the aforementioned $3.83/share, and the effective tax rate went from 24 percent to 17 percent.

Meta Platforms Inc. (META) stock finished the Wednesday, October 21 trading day up $3.27/share and continues to go up in after-hours trading.

Meta is expecting further growth for the quarter ahead. Its Q4 2026 guidance has been updated with a projected revenue of $73.76 billion, which factors in the remainder of the social media addiction lawsuit settlement. There are a handful of companies reporting their earnings this week, so keep it on Shacknews and the market news topic page for the latest stories.

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Ozzie Mejia Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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