Meta's shares are a hard sell as good old Facebook days are over

Facebook's European headquarters in Dublin. The company is focused on capitalising on Instagram Reels, its rival to the TikTok video-sharing app.

In most market environments, a company with one of the lowest valuations in the Nasdaq 100 Index, a solid balance sheet and sales growth averaging 34% a year would be an obvious buy. In the case of Meta it’s not so obvious.

Since Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement a year ago of a name change and strategy overhaul for the owner of Facebook, the stock has wiped out more than half the gain it had seen since its initial public offering a decade ago. That’s cost Meta $600bn (€617bn) in market value and a spot in the elite club of the US’s 10 biggest companies.