Meta Platforms stock climbed 4% Wednesday morning, rising from $575.05 to around $600 as investors focused on faster ad growth and a new partnership with PayPal. Even with the rebound, the meta stock remains down 9% for the year.
The move came after a quarter and a full year that showed the core business still doing the heavy lifting. Meta said advertising revenue grew at a rate between 22% and 26%, with Q4 2025 ad revenue reaching $58.14 billion, up 24% from a year earlier. Ad impressions rose 18% and the average price per ad increased 6%, while full-year 2025 revenue came in at $200.97 billion, up 22.17%, and earnings per share reached $23.49, topping the $22.93 consensus estimate.
That growth matters because it suggests Meta is still squeezing more money out of its enormous audience. Family daily active people reached 3.58 billion in Q4 2025, up 7% from a year earlier, giving the company a vast base for ad targeting and monetization across Facebook, Reels and WhatsApp. The PayPal deal fits that strategy, allowing one-tap shopping on Facebook and giving Meta a cleaner path into e-commerce revenue as it looks beyond its core ad engine.
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The partnership also adds a company with scale of its own. PayPal has 439 million active accounts and processed $1.79 trillion in total payment volume in fiscal year 2025, making it a meaningful gatekeeper for online transactions. For Meta, the timing matters because investors are weighing that growth against a heavy spending plan: management's 2026 capital expenditure guidance is $115 billion to $135 billion, a sign it believes AI infrastructure will drive the next phase of expansion.
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There is still a cost to that bet. Reality Labs is losing $19.2 billion a year, a drag that keeps the market focused on whether the company can keep turning AI investment into ad dollars fast enough to justify the bill. Wednesday's jump suggests investors are, for now, giving Meta the benefit of the doubt.
