Meta's Shares Are a Hard Sell as Good Old Facebook Days Are Over

  • Stock is among biggest decliners in tech sector this year
  • Bulls eye cheap valuation, expense cuts, growth revival

Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

Photographer: Nick Otto/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

In most market environments, a company with one of the lowest valuations in the Nasdaq 100 Index, a solid balance sheet and sales growth averaging 34% a year would be an obvious buy. In the case of Meta Platforms Inc., it’s not so obvious.

Since Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement a year ago of a name change and strategy overhaul for the owner of Facebook, the stock has wiped out more than half the gain it had seen since its initial public offering a decade ago. That’s cost Meta $600 billion in market value and a spot in the elite club of the US’s 10 biggest companies.