META vs. Pinterest: Which Social Media Stock is a Better Buy?

Meta Platforms META and Pinterest PINS are well-known social commerce providers. Social commerce is a subset of e-commerce, which essentially means using social media platforms to promote and sell products or services. It helps businesses, particularly small and medium-sized, to interact with customers directly, thereby improving reach, engagement and conversion rates. For customers, social commerce not only helps in discovering products but also complete the entire purchase journey without leaving the platform.

Per bigcommerce.com, which cited Statista data, social commerce sales are expected to double from $570 billion in 2023 to more than $1 trillion by 2028. eMarketer expects retail social commerce sales to hit roughly $80 billion by 2025 in the United States. These data highlight massive growth opportunities for social media platforms as they continue promoting unique content created by brands, influencers and individuals. The platforms are offering shopping as an experience powered by livestreaming, Augmented Reality and/or Virtual Reality and gaming.

The Case for Meta Platforms Stock

Meta Platforms offers a social commerce experience to its users through Facebook and Instagram. According to Shopify, which cited Statista data, 89% of social media marketers prefer Facebook to drive social commerce sales, while one-third of social commerce buyers prefer to buy through Facebook. Instagram, on the other hand, is used by roughly 26% of the global population over the age of 13.

Instagram allow users to buy products shown in images and video across the app. Shopping tags and shop tab helps user discover products and purchase them in the platform. Shop tab also allows businesses to place ads. Meta is helping brands and creators to collaborate on Instagram and has expanded the creator marketplace to new international markets including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., Japan, India and Brazil.

Apart from Facebook and Instagram, Meta Platforms is taking initiatives to promote business over WhatsApp. META has introduced AI tools that help businesses on WhatsApp assist their customers and help them discover new products. Integrated AI helps businesses on WhatsApp create ads on Facebook and Instagram more easily.

Meta Verified on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp is a popular initiative under which the company offers four subscription plans to help businesses build credibility. All plans include the verified badge, account support and impersonation protection. This boosts consumer trusts and attracts new businesses to the platforms.

The Case for Pinterest Stock

Pinterest provides a platform to show its users (called Pinners) visual recommendations (called Pins) based on their personal taste and interests. Users then save and organize these recommendations into collections (called Boards).

The global user base, measured by Monthly Average Users, hit 553 million in 2024. Pinterest’s tools, including native targeting, personas and interactive insights, are helping businesses target and reach customers. 

A vast majority of Pinterest searches — 96% — are unbranded, which means shoppers can discover new products, and 80% of weekly Pinners say that they feel inspired by the shopping experience on the platform. PINS is significantly popular among Gen Z, which make up 42% of the global user base.

META Shares Outperform PINS

Both Meta Platforms and Pinterest shares have suffered from tech sell-off year-to-date (YTD) due to the escalating trade war situation post-U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to levy tariffs on trading partners, including China, Canada and Mexico. While META shares have lost 11.4% YTD, Pinterest plunged 12.4%.

META and PINS Stock Performance

META’s Earnings Estimate Revision Positive, PINS’ Steady

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for META’s 2025 earnings is pegged at $25.62 per share, up by a penny over the past 30 days, indicating a 7.38% increase over fiscal 2024’s reported figure.
 

Meta Platforms, Inc. Stock Price and Consensus

Meta Platforms, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Meta Platforms, Inc. Quote

However, the consensus mark for PINS’ 2025 earnings has been steady at $1.82 per share over the past 30 days, suggesting 41.09% growth over 2024.
 

Pinterest, Inc. Stock Price and Consensus

Pinterest, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Pinterest, Inc. Quote

META’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, while PINS has missed once. Meta Platforms’ average surprise of 13.77% is slightly better than Pinterest’s surprise of 13.24%, reflecting good quality of earnings beat on a consistent basis.

Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.

Valuation: PINS is Cheaper Than META

Valuation-wise, both Meta Platforms and Pinterest are overvalued, as suggested by the Value Score of C and D, respectively. 

In terms of forward 12-month Price/Sales, Pinterest shares are trading at 3.93X, lower than Meta Platforms’ 6.69X.

PINS and META Valuation

Conclusion

Meta Platforms dominates the social commerce domain thanks to Instagram and Facebook. The company’s initiatives to offer user and business friendly features is a key catalyst. Although Pinterest is popular among Gen Z, we believe the company has lot to catch-up to improve competitive prowess against META.

Currently, Meta Platforms has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), making the stock a stronger pick compared with Pinterest, which has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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