Meta Platforms (META +0.72%), the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, is the world's largest social media company. If you had invested $1,000 in its initial public offering in 2012, your investment would be worth about $19,200 today.
From 2012 to 2024, Meta's revenue and earnings per share (EPS) grew at a CAGR of 34% and 91%, respectively. At the end of 2012, the company served 1.06 billion monthly active users on Facebook. But by the second quarter of 2025, it served 3.48 billion daily active people across all of its apps.
It also holds a near-duopoly in digital ads with Alphabet's Google across many markets, and it's established an early-mover advantage in the mixed reality market with its Reality Labs devices.
Image source: Getty Images.
Meta is still growing, but some investors might be wary of buying its stock as the market hovers near all-time highs. However, I believe it's still the best growth stock to buy right now -- and it could easily churn a fresh $1,000 investment into a lot more money in the future.
Why is Meta still a great growth stock?
In 2022, Meta's revenue dipped 1% as its EPS plunged 38%. Apple's privacy changes on iOS abruptly disrupted its targeted ads, ByteDance's TikTok lured away its users with its short videos, and the macro headwinds forced companies to rein in their ad purchases. As Meta's ad sales dried up, it ramped up spending on the unprofitable Reality Labs segment. That combination of slowing sales and rising expenses spooked the bulls, and Meta stock sank to a multiyear low of $88.37 on Nov. 3, 2022.
NASDAQ: META
Key Data Points
But in 2023, Meta's revenue and EPS increased 16% and 73%, respectively. In 2024, its revenue rose 22% as its EPS jumped 60%.
Its growth accelerated again as it rolled out more AI-powered first-party ads to counter Apple's privacy changes, expanded its Reels short video platform to challenge TikTok, and Chinese gaming and e-commerce companies ramped up their ad spending on Facebook and Instagram to reach overseas customers. The macro headwinds also dissipated as inflation cooled off and the Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark interest rates.
Meanwhile, Meta's family daily active people rose 8% in 2023, 5% in 2024, and another 6% year over year in the first half of 2025. Total ad impressions and average price per ad continued to climb as it gained more users across its apps. It's also gradually monetizing WhatsApp and its X-like microblogging platform Threads with more ads.
How does Meta balance its growth with investments?
Meta continues to subsidize its unprofitable Reality Labs segment with higher-margin ad revenue. That support allows it to expand its mixed reality ecosystem with loss-leading devices like the Quest VR headset and Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Over the long term, these products could give Meta a first-mover advantage in the nascent AR and VR markets. They could also transform its social media platforms into metaverse experiences.
The company is also ramping up investments in its cloud infrastructure and AI services. Those upgrades could drive up its near-term operating expenses, but they should strengthen its foundations over the long term and support its development of new features.
Yet Meta's operating margin still expanded from 25% in 2022 to 35% in 2023, then rose to 42% for both 2024 and the first six months of 2025. It achieved that expansion by streamlining its expenses and generating a greater mix of higher-margin ad revenue from its AI-driven first party ads.
Why does Meta still have room to run?
From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect Meta's revenue and EPS to grow at a CAGR of 17% and 13%, respectively. The stock looks reasonably valued at 24 times next year's earnings, and Meta's flywheel (gaining more users, gathering more data from their accounts to craft better-targeted ads, and using those ad revenue to expand its business) should drive long-term growth.
So unless you expect Meta's core platforms to abruptly stagnate while losing their users and advertisers, Meta stock is still a great place to park $1,000 right now. It might not replicate its gains from the past 13 years over the next decade, but it still has plenty of ways to expand its thriving business.
