MENLO PARK, July 31, 2024 — Mark Zuckerberg lost roughly $9 billion in a single trading session on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. The bottom line: a price-target cut from Goldman Sachs, not a downgrade, wiped billions off Meta Platforms’ market value even as the company beat expectations on revenue and earnings. Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan lowered his 12-month price target on Meta stock to $555 from $600, while maintaining a Buy rating.
The move triggered a sell-off that pushed Meta shares down roughly 4% on the day. Meta stock closed at $474.85 on July 31, 2024, down from $503.00 the previous day.
Zuckerberg, who owns roughly 13% of Meta’s outstanding shares, is particularly exposed to daily swings in the stock price. His net worth had peaked above $200 billion earlier in 2024, placing him among the world’s wealthiest individuals. The $9 billion one-day loss, while significant, did not dramatically alter his overall fortune, which remains well above $180 billion.
Earnings Beat, Stock Still Falls
Meta reported second-quarter 2024 earnings on July 31, 2024, the same day as the stock decline. The company posted revenue of $39.07 billion, up 22% year-over-year, and net income of $13.47 billion, or $5.16 per share. Despite beating analyst expectations on both revenue and earnings, the stock fell as investors focused on guidance and the Goldman price-target cut.
Meta’s Reality Labs division, responsible for the metaverse and virtual reality hardware, continued to lose money, posting an operating loss of $4.5 billion for the quarter. Meta stock had been on a strong run in 2024, rising more than 30% year-to-date before the pullback, fueled by investor enthusiasm for the company’s artificial intelligence initiatives and cost-cutting measures.
AI Spending and the Analyst Call
Zuckerberg has been steering Meta toward AI, including the release of the Llama family of large language models, and has emphasized that AI investment will be a multi-year effort. The company’s capital expenditures are expected to rise significantly in 2025 as it builds out AI infrastructure. The Goldman Sachs note cited concerns about the pace of AI monetization and rising costs.
Goldman Sachs’ move was part of a broader reassessment of mega-cap tech valuations as investors weighed whether the AI-driven rally had run ahead of fundamentals. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, has not commented publicly on the daily stock move or the Goldman Sachs price target change.
The episode underscores the outsize influence that Wall Street analyst ratings and price targets can have on technology stocks, especially those with founder-CEOs whose personal wealth is tied directly to share performance. Zuckerberg’s wealth remains overwhelmingly concentrated in Meta stock, a common trait among tech founders. Investors will note what comes next: whether Meta’s AI infrastructure spending translates into monetization, and whether analysts revise their targets again when the company reports its next quarterly results.
