What happened
Shares of Meta Platforms (META 2.72%) continued to fall Friday morning as investors continued to digest the poor second-quarter results the company delivered after the close of trading Wednesday. Its sales and earnings both missed analysts' consensus estimates, which spurred one analyst to downgrade the tech stock from a hold rating to a sell rating on Friday.
As of 12:23 p.m. ET, Meta's shares were down by 3.1%.
So what
In Q2, Meta experienced its first-ever year-over-year revenue decline -- down 1% to $28.8 billion. That result also undershot analysts' consensus estimate for revenue of $28.9 billion. News of that miss sent its stock reeling Thursday. But investors continued pushing the shares downward Friday, likely as they continued to process Meta's underperformance and after DZ Bank analyst Ingo Wermann downgraded Meta from a hold to a sell and cut its price target to $140.
Image source: Getty Images.
Wermann is in the minority among analysts when it comes to his sell rating on Meta, but more than a dozen analysts have cut their price targets for the stock following its quarterly report.
Investors' ongoing pessimism about Meta may also be connected to new economic data released Thursday. A report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that in Q2, U.S. gross domestic product fell for the second straight quarter. That decline is a rough indicator that the country could be in a recession.
Now what
Meta investors have lost a lot of confidence in the tech company lately. Its share price has tumbled by 58% over the past 12 months.
The company didn't do much to encourage investors with its latest quarterly results, and with the stock receiving a downgrade at the same time that government data is pointing to a slowing economy, it's no surprise that Meta's shares are continuing to fall.
