META is cheap at a forward P/E of 21.3 versus 28% revenue growth; a $914 DCF value against $737 implies 24% upside over 12 to 18 months. Q3 revenue should approach or exceed the $64 billion guidance top, and AI capex should stay self-funded by roughly $130 billion of operating cash flow.

Muse's personal agent from Meta reached 5 million downloads faster than ChatGBT or Anthropic. Therefore, many investors are feeling more excited about shares of Meta Platforms , which is scheduled to announce its quarterly financial results after the market closes on October 21.

Of course, I was optimistic about Meta shares throughout the year. I ranked it as the best stock to buy this year, then lowered my ranking slightly to become the second best stock to buy this year.

But I remained optimistic throughout the year. I own "Meta" shares in my personal investment portfolio.

So, let's review what investors should expect from Meta in its upcoming quarterly financial report, and whether the stock represents a buying opportunity ahead of this important investment update.

Note the recent momentum in Meta Platforms shares , which are now up more than 11.75% in 2026. The price had dropped to $550 per share in recent weeks and jumped to $734 at the time of recording this video .

Even before the launch of MetaMuse, I was optimistic about MetaPlatforms because of the organic improvement I was seeing in the company’s core products.

You can clearly see this through the growth of its revenues, which accelerated in the last quarter that ended. Total revenue increased by 28%, the fastest rate of increase in a long time, to reach $60.8 billion.

However, operating income fell by 8% to $18.8 billion, as Meta increased its investments in artificial intelligence to develop new products such as Meta Muse.

With its investment in its core product, its use has become more appealing to people. The number of people using one of Meta's apps jumped to 3.6 billion in June 2026. This is a 3% increase compared to the same period last year.

In addition, the number of ad impressions increased by 14%, and the average ad price increased by 12%. The combination of these two things is evidence that Meta doesn't display more ads per minute just because they can choose to, right?

You see a certain number of ads per minute while you are on the app right now, and Meta can greatly increase that , so you see more ads, but that would be annoying. Also, increasing the display without increasing the interaction will lead to a decrease in the productivity of those ads, and the price of the ad will decrease as marketers will see a lower return on ad spend and reduce their budgets as a result .

But that's not what's happening. In fact , it is quite the opposite. The price per ad increases with the number of impressions , and as Meta informed investors, the reason is that there are more people on the platform , and those same people are spending more time on it, opening the app more frequently, and staying longer when it is open.

Those were, to me, early indications that its investments in artificial intelligence were succeeding in enhancing its core competitive advantage as the most dominant social media platform on the planet.

These are the things I will be looking for, especially the first few points you discussed, such as revenue growth rate , ad impressions , ad price per ad, daily active users on its platform, the number of people using MetaMuse, how many of them have joined in recent weeks, and whether this growth is accelerating.

There are many big questions that I am looking forward to seeing answered in the reports that Meta will present when the results are announced after the markets close on October 21.

Although Meta Platforms is spending more money on artificial intelligence, most of that goes toward physical spending, such as data centers and the chips that are placed inside those centers.

In fact, the number of employees decreased by 1% year-on-year. And again, this is another thing that impressed me about Meta. They were able to generate 28% more revenue with 1% fewer employees.

That's what I was saying about artificial intelligence. You can do more with the same number of employees, or you can do the same things with fewer employees. It enables employees to be more productive and take on more tasks, and that's what we see from Meta.

So, all the things I put on my checklist that I want to see from a company that spends a lot in a certain category, I see them materialize in Meta Platforms. Especially with its latest product, "Meta Muse," it shows me that Meta is capable of researching and developing new products and services that excite users around the world.

Meta expects third-quarter revenue to range between $61 billion and $64 billion in its next quarter . When they release their reports on Wednesday, I expect the results to approach or exceed the upper limit of this target .

The competitive advantages it enjoys , and the increase in advertising spending, especially as we approach the midterm elections and the hotly contested states , are all factors that lead to increased budget allocations.

This leads to higher advertising rates, which should be a positive thing for Meta Platforms in the next quarter. Of course, they were already expecting the midterm election season to lead to increased advertising spending.

But so far, spending appears to have been much higher than expected due to the increasing number of hotly contested elections in various categories across the United States.

Another big number I will be watching closely is their capital expenditure budget . They have informed investors that they plan to spend between $130 billion and $145 billion in capital expenditures in 2026.

I wouldn't be surprised if they came back and told us it would be , you know, $135 billion to $145 billion or $140 billion to $150 billion. I think the midpoint of this estimate will rise as a result of rising component costs and high inflation in components, materials, and everything required to run a data center.

Costs have increased significantly through 2026. I don't think Meta is planning for more capacity, but they will have to spend more to achieve the capacity they thought they would have at the beginning of 2026.

So, they probably had a specific target for the amount of computing power they wanted to grow and add in 2026, but what has increased is the cost of acquiring that computing power they planned for at the beginning of 2026.

The rising prices of memory, storage, land, and energy, along with dealing with the local community and politicians, all contribute to making data center construction more difficult and expensive, and Meta will likely report on this when they announce their results in their next quarterly report.

To support those investments, I want to see significant growth in the company's operating cash flow. They have already proven it, but I want to see it continue . In the three months ending June 30, their cash flow from operations rose to $32 billion.

That was up from $25.6 billion in the same quarter last year . For the first six months of 2026, they generated $64 billion in operating cash flow compared to $50 billion in the same period last year.

So, an increase of approximately 28% in cash flow compared to the same period last year. Annually, this will result in approximately $130 billion in operating cash flow , which is roughly equivalent to what the company has stated it will spend on capital expenditures.

This is what I would like to see from the company's spending on artificial intelligence from its operating cash flow generated from its business. So, what I would like to see is these investments in artificial intelligence self-funded.

When I see budgets exceeding that, I start to worry, especially since they have already added tens of billions of dollars in debt to their balance sheet . I think they can do more, but I don't want them to push the limits of the debt they can borrow to build these AI data centers.

It would be better if they extended some of the construction plans and spread them out a little so that all the spending is not concentrated in one specific year.

Meta's stock is currently trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21.3 , which is still very cheap compared to the business prospects. I have shared with you revenue growth of 28 % and expectations of further growth in the future.

The new product has not yet been integrated into the company's revenue-generating capacity. We are still in the very early stages with Meta Muse, the personal agent. Cash flow grew by 28% in the first six months of the year .

So, with this kind of growth, and selling at a forward P/E ratio of only 21, I think it's very cheap, and that's part of the reason why I'm so optimistic about Meta and have ranked it as the second best stock to buy right now.

I have also updated my assessment of Meta's discounted cash flows. I now value the company at $914 per share . The current market price is $737. I see a potential upside of 24% over the next 12 to 18 months for Meta.

And if I am wrong about this, I think I am wrong for being too conservative. I think I may be wrong because the stock price may rise more than I estimate, given the positive winds the company is currently catching.

So, to answer the question, do I think it's a buying opportunity before the earnings announcement? I will say yes. Now, it also depends on the structure of your investment portfolio.

For example, for me, since I already own a large percentage of Meta shares in my portfolio, I am not interested in buying before the company announces its earnings. However, I am interested in the possibility of buying after the company announces its earnings.

Therefore, if you are someone who is interested in buying Meta and do not own any shares, I suggest—which is what I would do if I did not own any shares—that you buy 75% of your allocation before the company announces earnings and 25% after the earnings announcement.

If you want a more neutral approach to risk, and if you want to reduce downside risk, you could even do 50% before earnings and 50% after earnings. This way you reduce the risk of missing out by buying a portion before the earnings announcement, as the share price may jump by 5, 10 or 20% after the event.

If you buy a portion before that, you benefit from this potential rise. But by splitting your purchases into two parts and not buying everything in advance, you also protect yourself from the possibility of the stock price dropping by 5, 10 or 20% after the company announces its earnings.

Then you have half of your allocation to buy later, which allows you to buy the stock at a lower price after a decline if that happens. So, this will be my approach to dealing with it .

I still think this is one of the best stocks you can buy right now . I ranked it second only to Nvidia as the best stock to buy right now, in my opinion , of course, based on my research and calculations.