BUZZ - Meta shares rise in pre-market trading, driven by artificial intelligence plans and new stock issuance

October 22 - ** Meta Platforms (META.O) shares rose more than 1% in pre-market trading after the company announced (link) it would issue a new class of stock to support its artificial intelligence development, reported third-quarter revenue that exceeded expectations, and gave a strong outlook for the fourth quarter.

** The company will issue a new class C non-voting share in January 2027 and said its newly launched AI assistant Muse has attracted more than 10 million user sign-ups within the first six weeks.

** META also predicted that fourth-quarter revenue would exceed Wall Street’s expectations and narrowed its annual capital expenditure outlook to the range of $135 billion to $145 billion from a previous range of $130 billion to $145 billion.

** The company reported a free cash flow deficit of $2.12 billion in the third quarter.

** The stock is up about 5.7% year-to-date, underperforming the Nasdaq .IXIC Index’s 14.9% gain.

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