META Platforms investors must ask themselves one thing about Mark Zuckerberg: Do they trust him?

Expectations were high for the first quarter after the wild success of the fourth last year, which spurred the biggest value gain in the history of the US stock market. Those hopes were dashed by the results on Wednesday (Apr 24), with shares sliding by as much as 19 per cent in after-hours trading.

Investors seemed unhappy primarily about three things. First, Meta’s forecast for its current quarter revenue, which fell in the mid-range of what analysts had estimated, suggests digital ad prospects are not as strong as some had expected.