Facebook is a ubiquitous social media platform. More than 2 billion people log into their Facebook accounts each day, and more than 3 billion actively use the platform every month, making it the biggest social media site in the world. Even more people log into the company's family of social platforms each month, which includes Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp.
A captive audience provides Facebook with a treasure trove of data that it can use to sell advertising. It generates billions of dollars in ad sales each year.
As a Facebook user, you might wonder how to invest in the company. Here's a step-by-step guide on investing in Facebook stock and some factors to consider before investing in the technology stock.
Is it publicly traded?
Is Facebook publicly traded?
Facebook completed its initial public offering (IPO) in 2012. At the time, it traded on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange using the stock ticker FB.
However, the company has evolved over the past decade. In 2021, the company rebranded to showcase its move beyond social media. Among its biggest investments is in the metaverse, which led the company to change its name to Meta Platforms (META -0.26%) and its stock ticker to META.
In addition to its namesake social media platform and metaverse investments, Meta owns several other technology brands. The most notable ones are:
- The photo and video-sharing app Instagram.
- The text update and public conversation app Threads.
- Mobile messenger service WhatsApp.
- Virtual reality technology company Reality Labs and its Meta Quest VR headsets and Ray-Ban Meta Glasses.
- Meta is also building several artificial intelligence (AI) products and services, including AI chatbot MetaAI.
How to invest
How to invest in Facebook
While you can't invest specifically in Facebook's social media platform, you can invest in its parent company Meta Platforms. You can buy shares of Meta with any brokerage account. If you still need to open one, these are some of the best-rated brokers and trading platforms. Here's a step-by-step guide to buying Meta stock:
- Open your brokerage app: Log in to your brokerage account where you handle your investments.
- Search for the stock: Enter the ticker or company name into the search bar to bring up the stock's trading page.
- Decide how many shares to buy: Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to this stock.
- Select order type: Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay.
- Submit your order: Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
- Review your purchase: Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected and adjust your investment strategy accordingly.
ETF options
Alternative ways to invest in Meta Platforms
Instead of buying Meta Platforms shares directly, you can passively invest in the technology company through a fund holding its shares.
Meta Platforms is among the world's largest companies by market capitalization and is a widely held stock. Meta is in several stock market indexes, including the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 index. As a result, index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that benchmark their returns against those indexes hold Meta stock.
According to ETF.com, 461 ETFs held almost 220 million shares of Meta as of early 2025. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY 0.42%) held the most shares. Meta Platforms was the fund's fifth-largest holding at 2.7% of its assets.
Other ETFs have more exposure to Meta stock. The Vanguard Communications Services ETF (VOX -0.63%) has the largest allocation to Meta stock at 21.8%, making it a potentially attractive way to invest passively in Meta stock.
Should I invest?
Should I invest in Meta Platforms?
Before investing in Facebook's parent company's stock, you need to determine whether Meta Platforms shares are a good investment. Here are some factors to consider before investing in Meta stock.
Profitability
Profitability
Meta Platforms is an immensely profitable company. The social media giant reported $62.4 billion in net income in 2024. That was up 59% from the previous year as Meta focused on increasing revenue and keeping a lid on costs to improve profitability. Revenue rose 22%, while total costs only grew 8%.
The company behind Facebook is also free cash flow-positive. Meta generated $52.1 billion in free cash flow after funding $39.2 billion in capital expenses. That enabled the technology giant to return cash to investors by repurchasing shares ($29.8 billion) and paying dividends ($5.1 billion) while maintaining a cash-rich balance sheet ($77.8 billion in cash, equivalents, and marketable securities against $28.8 billion of long-term debt).
Meta is using its strong cash flow to invest heavily in AI. The company planned to boost its capital spending to a range of $60 billion-$65 billion in 2025 on things like data center projects and other investments in generative AI, and to expand its core business.
Cash Flow
Revenue
Meta Platforms generated $164.5 billion in revenue in 2024, about 22% more than the prior year.
The company has three revenue sources:
- Family of Apps Advertising: $160.6 billion or 98% of the total.
- Family of Apps Other: $1.7 billion or 1% of the total.
- Reality Labs (VR and metaverse): $2.1 billion or 1% of the total.
Meta is investing heavily to build, scale, and monetize several AI products and services. The company believes that AI could eventually become a major revenue driver. It sees huge revenue potential for Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, building an AI engineering agent with the coding and problem-solving abilities of a good mid-level engineer, and for Meta AI, which it's building as a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant.
Meta Platforms' valuation
Here's a snapshot of Meta Platform's valuation:
As that chart shows, Meta traded at about 23 times its forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio as of early 2025. For comparison, the S&P 500 traded at a forward P/E ratio of more than 21 times. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq-100 traded at more than 25 times its forward P/E. These valuation metrics suggest Meta Platforms stock trades at a slight premium to the broader market (S&P 500) and is a little cheaper than the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
Dividends
Does Meta Platforms pay a dividend?
Facebook's parent Meta Platforms initiated its first dividend payment in early 2024. The company increased the payment by 5% one year later. Given the company's growing revenue and cash flow, it could continue to increase its dividend in the future.
Related investing topics
The bottom line on investing in Meta Platforms stock
Facebook is the most popular social media platform on the planet. Facebook's parent company, Meta, is cashing in on all those users by generating billions of dollars in advertising revenue each year, giving it money to invest in expanding into new areas, including AI.
Those investments could drive significant earnings and profit growth in the future. That makes Meta Platforms look like a potentially exciting stock to own for the long term.
FAQ
FAQs on investing in Meta Platforms (Facebook)
Can you invest in Facebook?
You can invest in Facebook through its parent company Meta Platforms.
Can you buy one share of Facebook?
You can buy a single share of Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms in a brokerage account. Some brokerage accounts also allow you to purchase fractional shares, meaning you could buy less than a full share of Meta.
What if you invested $1,000 in Facebook's IPO?
If you invested $1,000 into Facebook's stock at its IPO, that investment would have grown to almost $15,300 in value as of early 2025.
Does META pay a dividend?
As of early 2025, Meta Platforms paid a quarterly dividend.
