Meta Platforms, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, reported second-quarter 2026 profits of $6.18 per share on revenue of $60.8 billion. That fell well short of what Wall Street analysts expected, which was $7.22 per share (CNBC). The stock dropped nearly 8% right after the news on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, then kept falling to as much as 10% in after-hours trading (Yahoo Finance; Fortune).

The $1.04 gap between what analysts expected and what Meta delivered is a large miss. Revenue of $60.8 billion came with what CNBC described as a "mixed quarter," and higher costs were cited as one reason profits fell short (CNBC; Fortune).

Making matters worse, Meta also told investors to expect lower revenue than previously thought for the current quarter (CNBC). Think of it like a shop owner having a bad sales month and then saying next month probably won't be great either. When a company disappoints on its current results and lowers expectations for the near future, investors react strongly because both the present and the near future look worse than they thought.

A 10% drop might not sound huge, but for a company as large as Meta, it means tens of billions of dollars in value vanished in a single trading session. After-hours trading, which happens outside normal market hours, has fewer buyers and sellers active. That can make price swings bigger than they would be during regular trading. The next morning's regular trading session will give a better sense of how big investors respond.

A few things are worth pulling apart. First, costs: the reporting confirms that higher costs contributed to the profit miss, but we don't yet know which specific expenses grew the most. Meta has been spending heavily on artificial intelligence, and investors will want to know whether that spending is growing faster than the company's revenue. Second, the weak revenue outlook: it raises the question of whether advertisers are spending less on Meta's platforms, or whether the cautious forecast reflects other factors like currency changes or the broader economy. Third, Fortune noted that Meta's spending on equipment and infrastructure could affect how much cash the company generates in coming quarters, though specific numbers are not confirmed (Fortune).

The broader context here is the tension between Meta's heavy spending on AI and its short-term profits. When a big tech company misses on earnings, points to rising costs, and lowers its revenue forecast all at once, the market wants to know whether all that spending will eventually pay off. One quarter won't answer that. But these results have made it the central question for anyone who owns the stock.

Here's what we know for certain: Meta missed profit expectations by a wide margin, reported $60.8 billion in revenue, issued a weak forecast for the current quarter, and watched its shares fall as much as 10% in after-hours trading on July 29, 2026. Everything else, including whether the stock keeps falling and whether the cost increases are temporary or permanent, is guesswork that the coming quarters will need to resolve.