Meta Posts Q3 Diluted EPS of $3.83 on $64.60 Billion Revenue as AI Spending Stays in Focus

Meta Platforms reported third-quarter 2026 results on Wednesday, October 21, after the US market closed, with diluted earnings per share of $3.83 and revenue of $64.60 billion, according to the company's press release. The company had scheduled a conference call for 1:30 p.m. PT (4:30 p.m. ET) on the day of the announcement.

The revenue figure sits above the $61 billion to $64 billion range that Meta gave for the quarter in its second-quarter release in July. Ahead of the report, Bloomberg analyst estimates called for earnings per share of $3.56 on revenue of $63.3 billion, as Yahoo Finance reported on the day of the release. Against that consensus, EPS came in about 7.6 percent higher and revenue about 2.1 percent higher.

Sequentially, the picture is less tidy. Revenue rose from $60.80 billion in the second quarter, a gain of roughly 6.3 percent. Diluted EPS fell from $6.18, a decline of about 38 percent. The second-quarter release had reported revenue up 28 percent year over year. Meta's first-quarter 2026 release reported diluted EPS of $10.44, so the per-share line has moved a long way in two quarters even as the top line kept climbing.

Part of that volatility is accounting. Meta's first-quarter release notes an $8.03 billion income charge recorded in the third quarter of 2025. Any year-over-year EPS comparison against that quarter will be distorted by it, so the cleaner read is sequential, or revenue-based. Investors who want to strip out one-off items should check the reconciliation tables in the release rather than rely on headline per-share growth.

The cost side is where the debate sits. In January, Bloomberg reported that improvements in the online advertising business were making it possible for Meta to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on AI over the next few years. Ahead of this report, Reuters said Meta's AI outlays and the adoption of its Muse personal assistant would be in focus, and a Reuters Breakingviews column dated October 21 projected negative free cash flow of $8.5 billion for the third quarter, based on compiled estimates. Free cash flow, operating cash flow minus capital expenditure, is the line that tells you whether the AI build-out is being funded from the business or from the balance sheet. It is the number that matters most for anyone sizing Meta's capacity to keep spending.

Muse is the product thread running through the quarter. Meta announced Muse Spark in April, describing it as its most powerful model to date and the engine for a smarter Meta AI assistant across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. In July, the company said Meta AI, powered by Muse Spark 1.1, could make plans, connect to email and calendar apps, create slides, and handle tasks on users' behalf. In September, Meta introduced Muse as a personal AI agent that proactively helps people with their goals, and followed up with a newsroom post on Muse for small business on September 29. The commercial question is whether agentic features translate into engagement and ad monetization quickly enough to justify the capital being committed. Reuters' reporting suggests that is the question the market was asking before the print.

On capital returns, Meta announced a quarterly cash dividend on September 10, 2026. The dividend matters here mainly as a signal that the company is maintaining a payout while it leans into capital spending.

The market reaction has been volatile this year. Bloomberg reported on July 29 that Meta shares fell after the company defended its AI bets to skeptical investors and gave a revenue forecast that disappointed. A Bloomberg opinion column dated October 21 framed the report around investors looking to Mark Zuckerberg for the payoff from Muse. That framing is the right one to hold onto. A beat on revenue and EPS against a consensus set in the weeks before the print tells you the top line is running ahead of expectations. It does not tell you what the spending earns.

For professional investors, three numbers should anchor the read: the quarter's revenue against the guided range, the cash generated against the capital committed, and the expense outlook the company updates on the call. Headline EPS, distorted by prior-year charges and by swings in the tax and one-off lines, is the least reliable of the group. The $3.83 print is a real result. Whether it is the start of a trend or a single quarter in a heavy investment cycle will take more than one release to settle.