Meta Platforms

Share count falling — buybacks

−10.0% over 4y

The company has reduced its share count over this period, returning value to shareholders through buybacks.

Diluted shares outstanding: 2.86B (2021) → 2.57B (2025)

Meta Platforms owns some of the most widely used social media apps in the world, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. These apps let billions of people share photos, messages, and videos with friends and family. Meta also makes Quest virtual reality headsets and is building tools for what it calls the "metaverse," a digital world where people can interact online.

Almost all of Meta's revenue comes from selling digital advertising. Businesses pay Meta to show targeted ads to users based on their interests and behavior, which is a powerful model given Meta's massive reach across roughly 3.3 billion daily active users worldwide. Meta operates globally but earns most of its revenue in North America and Europe. Its main competitive advantage is the sheer size of its user base, which makes it hard for advertisers to ignore. The biggest risk is that younger users are spending more time on rivals like TikTok, while heavy investment in AI and the metaverse could pressure profits if those bets take time to pay off.

Winston Score History

Politician Trades

63 trades / 12mo

36 Congressional buys and 27 sells on META in the last 12 months.

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Growth Profile

For growth stock investors

When traditional metrics don't capture the full picture, these are the signals growth stock investors use instead.

Revenue Growth

+28.0% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Revenue accelerating

EPS Growth

-14.4% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Earnings declining

R&D Spend

$57.4B/ year

↑ Rising (+31% vs prior year)

28.5% of revenue

2.4x the sector average (12%)

Investing heavily in future products and technology

Insider Activity

13.6%ownership

→ Flat

Insider ownership roughly steady over the past year

Cash Position

Cash flow positive

$120.4B cash & investments

Quarterly Free Cash Flow

↓ Burn rate worsening

Company generates more cash than it spends — no dilution risk from fundraising

Revenue accelerating

Meta Platforms grew revenue 28% year-over-year and the growth rate is speeding up. That's the kind of momentum growth investors look for — the question is whether margins can follow.

The Winston Score above measures business quality today. Growth stocks often score lower because they invest in the future rather than maximising current profits. These metrics show what matters most for evaluating that future.

Score breakdown

Every number that matters to educated investors.

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Quality

Gross Margin

81.4%

Premium pricing power — 81.4% gross margin

Operating Margin

30.9%

Excellent — 30.9% operating margin

ROCE

5.4%

Weak — 5.4% return on capital

ROIC between 5% and 15%. They earn 5 to 15 cents back per year on every dollar invested.

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Growth

Sales YoY

+27.7%

Fast-growing sales (+27.7% YoY)

EPS YoY

-4.9%

Earnings shrinking (-4.9% YoY)

Slight earnings drop. Typical near a cyclical low.

EPS Consistency

6/8 quarters

Earnings grew in most of the last 8 quarters

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Cash Flow

Cash Conversion

191%

Turns 191% of profit into real cash

FCF Margin

18.0%

Converts sales into free cash efficiently (18.0%)

FCF margin between 10% and 20%. Every $100 in sales becomes $10 to $20 in real cash.

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Stability

Debt / Equity

0.32

Conservative — low debt load (0.32)

Interest Cover

38.13x

Comfortably covers interest (38.1x)

Interest coverage above 8. Profits cover interest many times over.

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Valuation

P/E Ratio (TTM)

22.0x

Growth-priced — P/E 22.0

P/E above the market average. People are paying up for expected growth.

P/E vs Forward

+7.4

GROWING

Earnings expected to grow meaningfully — cheaper on forward P/E (22.0 → 14.6)

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Dividends

Dividend Yield

0.35%

Small dividend — 0.35% yield

Modest yield. The bulk of any return needs to come from price appreciation.

Dividend Growth

+2.4%

Dividend flat

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