Meta Earnings Date: Q3 2026 Report Time, Forecasts and Stock Reaction

Meta reports Q3 2026 earnings on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, after the US market close, with the conference call at 4:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. PT). That is eight days earlier than last year’s October 29 date, so calendars that still project late October are wrong.

The headline earnings per share will look odd twice over. A year ago a $15.93 billion one-time tax charge cut Meta’s EPS to $1.05. This quarter Meta has said it expects about $10 billion of legal expense from its settlement with 29 state attorneys general, a charge that was not in its July guidance. Revenue, not EPS, is the cleaner number to watch, and Meta guided to $61bn to $64bn.

Next Meta earnings date

Meta confirmed the schedule in an investor-relations release on October 12, 2026.

What time does Meta release earnings?

Always after the US close, which puts the release late in the evening in South Africa and after midnight in South Asia. The US is still on daylight saving time on October 21, so New York is at UTC−4.

The first full cash session to price the numbers opens at 9:30 a.m. ET on October 22: 19:00 IST, 18:30 PKT and 15:30 SAST.

Meta earnings calendar: past and upcoming dates

For the past year Meta has reported on the last Wednesday of the month after a quarter ends. The October 21 date breaks that pattern by a week.

Notice periods vary: Meta announced the Q3 2025 date on October 1, four weeks ahead, but gave only nine days’ notice this quarter. Until the IR release is out, any date on a calendar site is an estimate, and at least one still showed October 28 after Meta had confirmed October 21.

How the Meta earnings call works

Meta posts a press release with the quarter’s figures and next quarter’s outlook on its IR site, then holds a dial-in call. Management usually opens with product and AI strategy, then the CFO walks through the numbers and guidance before analyst questions. The price starts moving the moment the release lands, roughly half an hour before anyone speaks.

What’s in the Meta earnings report

• Revenue, split between Family of Apps (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Threads) and Reality Labs (headsets, smart glasses).
• Ad impressions and average price per ad. Revenue growth comes from these two, so they tell you whether growth is volume or pricing.
• Daily active people (DAP) across the family of apps.
• Costs and expenses, operating margin and diluted EPS.
• Capital expenditures and free cash flow. In July this was the line that sank the stock.
• Outlook: next-quarter revenue range, full-year expenses and full-year capex.

For a step-by-step walkthrough of these lines, see the guide on how to read an earnings report.

What to expect from Meta earnings

Consensus vs. company guidance

Meta set the revenue range in its Q2 2026 results on July 29. The consensus below is from TipRanks as of October 19; year-ago figures are from Meta’s Q3 2025 release.

The revenue consensus sits in the upper half of Meta’s range, so a print near $63bn is already priced. The guidance assumes foreign exchange is about a 1% headwind to growth.

The EPS consensus is far less reliable. Bank of America analyst Justin Post forecasts EPS of $3.79, well below the $6.60 consensus, because his number includes the legal charge, TipRanks reported. Some estimates in the consensus pool include the charge and some do not, which is why the spread between them is so wide. Expect headlines on October 21 to call this a “miss” whatever the business did.

The $10 billion legal charge

In August, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion over 10 years to settle youth-harm claims brought by attorneys general from 29 states. About $12.7 billion is paid regardless of what other platforms do. The remaining $5.3 billion depends on YouTube and TikTok adopting comparable measures, Finviz reported on August 26. Meta said it expects to recognise about $10 billion of legal expense in Q3, on top of the $2.4 billion of legal charges it booked in Q2. The settlement also sets a default two-hour daily limit for users under 18.

What matters for the stock: the charge is known and one-off. The underlying operating margin and the Q4 outlook are not.

What could move the stock

Capex and free cash flow. Q2 capex hit $31.1 billion and free cash flow fell 91% to $784 million from $8.55 billion a year earlier, AP reported. Meta narrowed its 2026 capex range to $130bn to $145bn. Bank of America expects a further narrowing to $140bn to $145bn. Any first word on 2027 spending will likely matter more than the Q3 numbers themselves.

The Q4 revenue guide. In July the Q3 range midpoint came in below the $63.14 billion analysts expected, and the stock fell. A Q4 range whose midpoint clears consensus would be read as confirmation that AI-driven ad targeting is still lifting prices.

Ad pricing. In Q2, ad impressions rose 14% and average price per ad rose 12%, TradingKey noted. If pricing growth slows sharply, the revenue beat comes from volume alone, which is harder to sustain.

Muse adoption. Meta launched its Muse AI agent in September. Morgan Stanley estimates about 300,000 daily US downloads but only about 20% retention after 14 days, according to the same TradingKey report. Analysts will press management on usage numbers during the call.

How Meta stock reacts to earnings

Meta closed at $705.44 on October 19, according to TradingKey, below its September peak of $780.20 but far above the July post-earnings low. After the Q2 report, the stock traded at $531 in New York premarket on July 30, down 9.3%, Hargreaves Lansdown reported. EPS of $6.18 had missed the $7.22 consensus even as revenue rose 28% to $60.8 billion.

Estimates for this quarter’s move differ widely. Bloomberg options data cited by Investing.com on October 14 implied a 4.9% move in either direction. TipRanks put the implied move at about 12.1% on October 19 and said the average one-day move over the last four reports was 9.55%. The gap probably reflects different expiries and dates, so check the at-the-money straddle on your own platform on October 21.

Investing.com gives this history from the same Bloomberg data:

The source does not state the window for the actual move, and its July 2026 figure is larger than the roughly 10% next-day fall other outlets reported, so read the column as approximate. The pattern still holds: Meta moved more than options implied in seven of the last eight reports, and in both directions.

Why the move happens overnight

Results arrive after the close, so the first reaction plays out in thin after-hours trading. In July the stock was down 4.2% after hours, per AP, and more than 9% by the next premarket. A stop loss 3% below the close does not cap a loss when the stock opens 9% lower; the order fills at the first available price.

The knock-on effect on the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500

Meta is one of the largest members of the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500, so a double-digit move can shift the Nasdaq price and the S&P 500 price the next morning. Its capex figure also gets read across to other large AI spenders that report later in the season. The mechanics are covered in how earnings season affects stock indices.

How to prepare for a Meta earnings release

1. Mark the levels before the report. TradingKey flags support near $694 and resistance near $727, with the September high at $780.20.
2. Write down the numbers that matter: revenue against $63.34 billion, EPS with and without the roughly $10 billion legal charge, the Q4 revenue range, and the 2026 capex range against $130bn to $145bn.
3. Read the outlook section first. In July the guidance, not the quarter, set the direction.
4. Decide in advance whether you hold through the release. Holding means accepting gap risk. Waiting means trading on October 22 with the numbers known, from wherever the gap leaves the price.
5. Size for the gap. Meta moved 9% or more in six of the last eight reports on the Investing.com data. Check that your account can absorb a move that size against you.

For general approaches to positioning around reports, see earnings trading strategies and the earnings season guide.

Trading earnings season with PrimeXBT

PrimeXBT offers share CFDs on major US stocks alongside indices, forex, commodities and crypto futures on PXTrader 2.0. Because Meta carries heavy weight in both US benchmarks, traders who want exposure to the reaction without a single-stock position can follow it through the US Tech 100 and US 500 index CFDs. CFDs allow either a long or a short position.

Stop loss and take profit orders, adjustable leverage and TradingView charts are available on every instrument. If an overnight gap pushes the account balance negative, PrimeXBT’s negative balance protection restores it to zero, subject to the conditions in its help centre.

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