What To Watch For When Meta Platforms Reports Q3 Earnings After The Bell

Big tech earnings season is off to a sluggish start after Alphabet Inc GOOG and Microsoft Corp MSFT reported disappointing results this week. 

Meta has a chance to buck the trend when it reports Wednesday. Here's a look at what to expect from the company after the bell.

What To Know: Meta Platforms Inc META is scheduled to report its third-quarter financial results after the close. The company is expected to report earnings of $1.91 per share on quarterly revenue of $27.53 billion, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Daily active users are expected to total 1.98 billion and monthly active users are expected to reach 2.96 billion. Analysts are looking for average revenue per user of $9.32, per CNBC. 

Louis Navellier, founder of Navellier & Associates, told Benzinga that he expects internet advertising numbers to be closely watched following Alphabet's advertising slowdown. 

YouTube’s ad revenue decreased on a year-over-year basis for the first time since the company started reporting the YouTube division separately in 2019.

"In the wake of GOOG's disappointing ad revenue, META's competition with traditional Internet advertising will be closely scrutinized," Navellier said.

"Analysts have been cutting their earnings estimates in the past 3 months, so META could disappoint again as it did in Q2. META is forecasted to post a 41.3% Q3 earnings decline. "

Analysts are also anticipating a second straight quarter of declining revenue as Meta continues to battle the slowdown in ad spend, changes from Apple Inc's AAPL iOS privacy update and increasing competition. 

See Also: Tech Titans Get Slaughtered: Will Meta, Apple, Amazon Earnings Revive The Sector?

Last quarter, Meta reported revenue of $28.82 billion, which was down 1% year-over-year and came in below analyst estimates. The company reported earnings of $2.46 per share, which also missed estimates.

Meta provided third-quarter revenue guidance of $26 billion to $28.5 billion at the time and noted that it sees a "continuation of the weak advertising demand environment" moving forward.

“We’re putting increased energy and focus around our key company priorities that unlock both near and long term opportunities for Meta and the people and businesses that use our services,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

META Price Action: Meta has a 52-week high of $353.83 and a 52-week low of $122.53.

The stock was down 5.26% at $130.27 Wednesday afternoon.

Photo: Billionaires Success from Flickr.