Tear Sheet: Meta Platforms Inc.'s Financial Flexibility Narrows As Investment Spending Remains Elevated

This report does not constitute a rating action. What's new: After the company?s first-quarter 2026 results, we expect key credit metrics will be weaker than our previous forecast, including S&P Global Ratings-adjusted leverage of 0.4x in 2026 and 0.6x in 2027 (versus our previous forecast of 0.2x and 0.3x, respectively). We now forecast greater negative discretionary cash flow (DCF; -defined as free cash flow less dividends and share repurchases) in 2026 and 2027, which will likely turn modestly positive in 2028 and 2029. Note that we have increased our estimate for annual share repurchases to $20 billion to incorporate taxes related to the net share settlement of equity awards and annual debt issuance to $30 billion to maintain cash balances

...Meta Platforms, Inc.--Forecast summary EBIT interest coverage (x) 49.3 37.0 39.3 32.9 15.6 12.5 11.7 12.1 Debt/debt and equity (%) -- -- -- 4.6 16.3 22.3 23.0 19.1 Debt fixed- charge coverage (x) 81.8 55.2 56.1 46.8 25.7 22.7 20.7 21.5 Debt/debt and undepreciated equity (%) -- -- -- 4.6 16.3 22.3 23.0 19.1 All figures are adjusted by S&P Global Ratings, unless stated as reported. a--Actual. e--Estimate. f--Forecast. $--U.S. dollar. Rating Component Scores Foreign currency issuer credit rating ##-/Stable/-- Local currency issuer credit rating ##-/Stable/-- Business risk Strong Country risk Low Industry risk Intermediate Competitive position Strong Financial risk Minimal Cash flow/leverage Minimal Anchor ## Modifiers Diversification/portfolio effect Neutral (no impact) Capital structure Neutral (no impact) Financial policy Neutral (no impact) Liquidity Strong (no impact) Management and governance Neutral (no impact) Comparable rating analysis Negative (-1 notch) Stand-alone credit profile...

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