Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp parent company Meta has historically been seen as a good investment option, largely because of the success of the company’s social media and messaging apps. But what if you bought $1,000 worth of shares in Meta in early 2022 when Meta faced some struggles?
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Here’s a look at how Meta performed, the factors involved and more recent developments in Meta’s stock price.
Prior to February 2022, Meta was seen as a solid investment option, both for its holdings and its interest and development in AI, virtual reality and other emerging technologies. But development by itself doesn’t pay dividends, and in the wake of Meta’s earnings report released on the third of that month, the company’s stock price plummeted.
Meta’s financial performance had failed miserably in meeting analyst expectations, and to make matters worse, the company reported a decline in the number of daily users for the first time ever. For investors expecting the company’s steady growth to provide the kind of predictable returns Meta had become known for, this was quite a rude awakening — and investor reaction was swift and decisive.
In the wake of such a lackluster earnings report, Meta lost a mind-boggling $232 billion in market value over the course of the Feb. 3, 2022, trading day, a record for the biggest drop in market capitalization in a single day.
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There was more bad news in the earnings report that would spell trouble for Meta’s stock. Apple had recently completed an iOS privacy update, which made Meta’s efforts around targeted advertising much less effective. Without access to the kind of demographic information the privacy update obscured, Meta was expected to face a $10 billion loss in advertising revenue.
Though Meta’s stock price has been trending upward this year, recent developments could continue to affect performance. After Meta announced it would abandon fact-checking efforts on Facebook, the stock price staggered along, gaining and losing pretty evenly through the rest of the month.
However, recent political developments — notably Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg being linked to President Donald Trump’s administration — have led to increased scrutiny of Meta’s position and responsibility to police its community and stop the spread of misinformation.
On the first trading day of 2022, Meta’s stock price was $337.25, and a $1,000 investment would have netted you around 2.97 shares.
