Stocks / META
What If You Had Invested in Meta 10 Years Ago?
Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) with real monthly prices, dividends reinvested, through November 2026.
META $605.08 ▼ -3.96% last close, Nov 05, 2026
If you had invested $1,000 in META in November 2016, today it would be worth
$5,159
Same $1,000 in the S&P 500 (SPY): $3,895
If you had put $500 a month into META since November 2016, your $60,500 would be worth today
$154,067
Same plan in the S&P 500 (SPY): $128,888
More options in the What If calculator.
META live price chart
META returns by period
| Period | Total return | Per year | $1,000 became | SPY per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 21, 2026 | $0.5250 | +0.0% | ||
| Jun 15, 2026 | $0.5250 | +0.0% | ||
| Mar 16, 2026 | $0.5250 | +0.0% | ||
| Dec 15, 2025 | $0.5250 | +0.0% | ||
| Sep 22, 2025 | $0.5250 | +0.0% | ||
| Jun 16, 2025 | $0.5250 | +0.0% | ||
| Mar 14, 2025 | $0.5250 | +5.0% | ||
| Dec 16, 2024 | $0.5000 | +0.0% | ||
| Sep 16, 2024 | $0.5000 | +0.0% | ||
| Jun 14, 2024 | $0.5000 | +0.0% | ||
| Feb 21, 2024 | $0.5000 | — |
META year by year
Best full year: 2023 (+194.1%). Worst: 2022 (-64.2%).
| Year | META | SPY | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | -8.1% | +8.3% | |
| 2025 | +13.1% | +17.7% | |
| 2024 | +66.0% | +24.9% | |
| 2023 | +194.1% | +26.2% | A 'year of efficiency' with layoffs and cost cuts sent the stock up nearly threefold. |
| 2022 | -64.2% | -18.2% | Slowing ad sales, Apple's privacy changes and heavy metaverse spending cut the stock by about two thirds. |
| 2021 | +23.1% | +28.7% | |
| 2020 | +33.1% | +18.3% | |
| 2019 | +56.6% | +31.2% | |
| 2018 | -25.7% | -4.6% | |
| 2017 | +53.4% | +21.7% | |
| 2016 | +9.9% | +12.0% | |
| 2015 | +34.1% | +1.2% | |
| 2014 | +42.8% | +13.5% | |
| 2013 | +105.3% | +32.3% |
META: all at once or every month?
Take $12,000: all of it on day one, or $1,000 a month for a year. Across every starting month since 2012 (163 of them), the lump sum was ahead after 12 months in 126 (77%). The lump sum usually won, but roughly one start in 4 favored spreading it out. The best case for monthly investing was a start in January 2022, when it finished the year 99% ahead.
Worst drop
META's worst fall in this history was -75.4%, a near wipe-out, from August 2021 to October 2022. Getting back to the old high took until January 2024: 15 months from the bottom and 2.4 years from the peak. $1,000 invested at that peak shrank to about $246 at the low.
Meta dividends
META paid $2.10 per share over the last 12 months, quarterly. At $605.08 that is 0.35%, a small yield; nearly all of the return has come from the price.
| Year | Dividends / share | Change | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $2.10 | +5.0% | 0.32% |
| 2024 | $2.00 | — | 0.34% |
Yield = each year’s dividends divided by the price at the end of the year.
META dividend history: last 11 payments
| Ex-dividend date | Amount | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 21, 2026 | $0.5250 | +0.0% |
| Jun 15, 2026 | $0.5250 | +0.0% |
| Mar 16, 2026 | $0.5250 | +0.0% |
| Dec 15, 2025 | $0.5250 | +0.0% |
| Sep 22, 2025 | $0.5250 | +0.0% |
| Jun 16, 2025 | $0.5250 | +0.0% |
| Mar 14, 2025 | $0.5250 | +5.0% |
| Dec 16, 2024 | $0.5000 | +0.0% |
| Sep 16, 2024 | $0.5000 | +0.0% |
| Jun 14, 2024 | $0.5000 | +0.0% |
| Feb 21, 2024 | $0.5000 | — |
About Meta
| Company | Meta Platforms, Inc. |
| Listed | May 2012 (Nasdaq, as Facebook) |
| Sector | Communication services |
| Dividend | Started in 2024 |
Meta, called Facebook until 2021, owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger and earns almost all its money from advertising. It also spends heavily on virtual reality and AI.
Its 2012 IPO was famously rocky; the stock fell by half within months. In 2022, with ad sales slowing and huge spending on the metaverse, it lost about three quarters of its value, then more than tripled over the following year after cost cuts.
Meta began paying a dividend in 2024.
Questions about META
How much would $10,000 invested in META 10 years ago be worth today?
About $51,585 with dividends reinvested, invested at the November 2016 close: 415.9% in total, or 17.8% a year.
When does META pay dividends?
In the last 12 months the payments went out in March, June, September and December, $2.10 per share in total.
Did META beat the S&P 500?
Yes. Over the last 10 years it was ahead by 3.3 percentage points a year: +17.8% a year for META against +14.6% for SPY, dividends reinvested. It also fell harder at its worst (-75.4% against -23.9% for SPY over the same history).