At times, it's hard to believe that the company now called Meta Platforms (META 1.54%) had its initial public offering (IPO) more than 10 years ago.

For most of that decade-long stretch, Meta (originally known by the name of its key asset, Facebook) was the social media stock for many. It still anchors the acronym for the group of stocks that have come to symbolize cutting-edge tech: the FAANG stocks.

But along with other fading stars in the tech sector, Meta has taken some big hits to its share price lately. Let's see how it's done over the years, and whether that recent weakness makes it a buy now.

Meta has been a mover stock over the past decade

Meta's stock price gain over the past 10 years is quite impressive, even when factoring in the recent investor sell-offs. Following the IPO, the stock opened for trading at $42 a share. Assuming you were a retail investor snapping up stock on the exchange rather than a privileged insider, a $1,000 investment then would have bought you roughly 23.8 shares.

You would likely be rather happy if you held on to that stock. These days, the stake is worth roughly $4,253, for an approximate fourfold gain.

Yes, that number would be well higher if you'd sold at the peak. But as fundamentals-focused investors, we don't see much value in looking back, do we? Well, I'm human, after all, so scroll down right now if you don't want to know that figure. It's -- spoiler coming -- $9,151. Ouch!

Either way, the point is that Meta stock isn't anywhere near as popular as it was just 11 months ago. Some of the FAANG stocks have been defanged this year. Much of this has to do with the companies whiffing, at times badly, on important operational/financial metrics (we're looking straight at you, Netflix).

But there's also a broader dynamic at play: Amid rising interest rates and macroeconomic uncertainty, many investors are unwilling to put/keep their money in stocks considered to be relatively risky. Tech stocks have developed a well-earned reputation for being riskier than your average stock.

The desire to reduce risk during times of economic volatility has combined with Meta's disappointing performance lately to dampen investor sentiment on the once-beloved social media king. In its second quarter, the company recorded the first year-over-year revenue decline in its history, while headline net income fell a queasy 36% year over year.

That wasn't the only relatively weak quarter for Meta in recent times. Dialing it back two frames to the fourth quarter of 2021, the company that couldn't stop attracting an audience reported its -- again, first-ever -- sequential drop in the all-important daily active users (DAUs) yardstick.

Meta's business relies on advertising

So are the good times over for Meta? Is the social media king slipping from its throne? Personally, I don't think so. While the company remains almost entirely dependent on advertising, it still has a massive user base and can pinpoint ads more precisely than a great many other on- and offline platforms. Advertisers, therefore, shouldn't abandon it in droves.

The ad industry is experiencing a slump due to concerns about the economy. But if anything, I think Meta will suffer less than other ad-dependent businesses due to that near-irresistible lure of that ultra-sharp targeting.

Profitability is also being affected by the company's quest to be the master of all things in and around the metaverse, hence the name change from Facebook -- it's really serious about this. True, it has demonstrated some handsome technology that promises to turn us all into semipermanent avatars inhabiting a vast and deep digital world. And yes, the company has made only vague pronouncements at best about how it's going to draw revenue from this, let alone a profit that will be meaningful enough to suitably complement (or even rival) its traditional ad-fueled success.

Meta has been exceptionally skilled at dominating the social media space and making buckets of money from it. Still, the metaverse is uncharted and unproven territory.

Of moonshots and wizards

But you know what? That should matter little to current and would-be shareholders. Meta's metaverse adventure is ultimately an expensive moon shot, but the company can well afford expensive moon shots.

All told, it's spending nearly $9 billion quarterly on research and development, a major recipient of this being the Reality Labs unit housing the virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) efforts that will anchor its metaverse. Realty Labs booked an operating loss of $2.8 billion in the second quarter.

Those numbers sound kind of scary, but Meta is operating on a very large playground. Over the trailing 12 months, it has generated more than $35 billion in free cash flow alone, and at the end of Q2, it held a dizzying $40.7 billion in cash and short-term investments on its books.

If anyone can afford a huge push into the metaverse, then, it's Meta. And with its army of tech wizards, it has as good a chance to succeed as anyone currently in the field.

Ultimately, Meta might not be the dominant social media powerhouse it once was, but it's going to remain very strong in that segment, and it has a clear shot at taking a leadership role in the metaverse, too. After all these years, then, I still think the stock is a good buy.