META is expected to be fantastic long term, but issuing a new share class and equity dilutes the stock and can limit upside for a short period; a cash-secured put is a risk-adjusted way to enter.

Let's focus on the one-day chart for Meta Platforms, which reported earnings after the close yesterday. There were some good numbers. It projected confidence says the investments that they're making are paying off right now.

But we are down 6 12% on that name. Having come 9% off the highs that we'd seen in September, we are officially in a market correction here for Meta. So obviously we've come well off what we saw in September given the success of the Muse platform which they spoke a lot about.

As you mentioned the numbers were good. Uh but the higher spend that higher AI spend is overshadowing those numbers.

Although the range not really that different. It was 130 to 145 billion. They've now made it 135 to 145 billion. So just hyperfocused on this capex spend.

Revenue coming in 26% higher year-over-year, 64.6 billion. That was better than estimates here. EPS came in at $3.83. that included a nearly $10 billion legal settlement charge.

If we exclude that charge in the tax impact, earnings came in at 740 a share. That was also better than the expectations and showed that the underlying business carried the quarter with no issues.

The guidance going forward 73 to 76 billion for the fourth quarter. They did not offer fullear revenue guidance though that seems to be a bit of a sticking point here. Uh but it's this forward spending that they raised that lower end uh narrowed the range to a tighter higher range and they lifted their total expense guidance to 175 to $179 billion.

Also there's an a filing uh that came out today that showed future spending commitments largely for computing power and data center leases that was well above the level reported back in July.

So that uh seems to be a bit of a focus on some of the selloff here and some of the adjustments that we've seen.

Also important to note uh why this is hitting Meta the hardest and if we see increased spend from Alphabet or Microsoft why it may not react in the same way.

Meta funds all of its data center costs through advertising alone leaving no cloud customers to share that bill. So Meta has to fully fund this.

Six firms raised their price target following this report. Barlay's raised theirs to 880, keeps an overweight rating. They saw a lot of optimism around Muse. They called it a game changer.

City's price targets up to 9005. Also has a buy rating. They say Meta is in an AI super cycle. JP Morgan raised theirs to 940. Overweight rating. They highlighted their AIdriven advertising improvements.

And of course that's important because they have to foot that capex bill.

DA Davidson's price target now 800 up from 700 with a buy rating.

Uh we've got B of A raising theirs to 845 with a buy rating. But it wasn't all good. TD Cowan dropped their price target to 850 from 865. They do keep a buy rating though. They said the earnings were solid.

Um but the settlement charges uh they do expect them to issue equity or debt to finance their AI infrastructure spend over the coming years.

Uh, but I will say that Pivotal Research said that they thought that that new issuance of that class C stock put to bed any short-term speculation that Meta would announce any kind of equity deal.

Wells Fargo made a $5 reduction to its price target. Still overweight and Piper Sandler dropped its target by about $25 to $850, but also keeps an overweight rating.

So, some rerating of the price targets, Sam, but nobody's thesis really has changed. A lot of optimism around Muse. some concerns around covering the AI spend, but overall incredibly bullish still on Meta despite this move to the downside.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of analysts like this one, particularly going into earnings and given the success we've seen of Muse. I mean, it certainly looks like they're delivering on the AI strategy, but I guess you've also got the credit risk uh worries in the background as well.

So, we'll keep an eye on it, but great summary of what we're seeing in the analyst reaction here. I don't know if you had this kind of reaction on your bingo card given obviously what we heard from this company yesterday, but just walk us through a trade for example purposes.

Yeah, this isn't too far off what we've seen a lot of these hyperscaler companies do post great earnings, great results, just saying this is amazing business for us. However, uh this business is so good, we want to make more of it and borrow more money and spend more money and make even more of this amazing great business.

Uh it's really where the street's kind of tripping over itself right now. I think primarily the issuing of new shares, the creation of a new share class, uh diluting the stock a little bit.

I think that's uh what's putting uh the stock underwater.

That and just general market sentiment right now. We have oil uh racing higher uh this morning kind of putting some uh pressure on the entire market as uh interest rates continue to be higher without oil being higher. So that's kind of where we are uh broadly.

Uh I do love the stock. I do think the stock will uh be fantastic for the long term. However, when you issue these calls, looking at Alphabet for issue these extra stock or these new convertible shares, looking at Alphabet as a leader, uh can uh limit the upside potential in the stock for a short period of time.

I think that's where uh using options to get into this stock is a a good way for me to do so. A risk adjusted way certainly too. I'm going to look at a cash secured put as an example trade.

Now, I know we're trading a little bit lower here today, but I was just looking out into uh December the 660 strike. Uh right now, it's about $40 35 this morning. So, something where I can get into the name essentially, it's like a covered call, but I can hold on to my cash.

If we do, if we do trade lower, I will be uh issued the stock, and that's okay. I'm going to be uh issued a nice premium cushion uh for that risk. And if we trade higher, that's great, too. I'll just uh collect that entire premium.