Analysts Remain Bullish on Meta Platforms Stock Despite Near-Term Headwinds
Meta Platforms (META) stock has risen 16.3% over the past month and is up 10.2% year-to-date. The company impressed investors with its market-beating first-quarter results. However, macro uncertainty and tariff wars could weigh on ad spend and impact Meta's performance. Despite near-term headwinds, most Wall Street analysts remain bullish on META stock, as they are confident about the social media giant's strong positioning, solid execution, and resilience.
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Meta Platforms' Impressive Performance
Meta Platforms topped analysts' Q1 2025 revenue and earnings estimates, with its ad revenue rising 16% to $41.4 billion. Moreover, the company reported a 6% increase in daily active users across its family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp) to 3.43 billion.
The company is leveraging AI (artificial intelligence) to enhance its tools. Meta's artificial intelligence assistant, Meta AI, now has one billion monthly active users across the company's family of apps.
While Meta Platforms lowered its full-year expenses outlook, it raised its capex guidance to the range of $64-$72 billion from $60-65 billion for additional data center investments to support its AI initiatives and a rise in the expected cost of infrastructure hardware. Overall, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed confidence in navigating the ongoing macro uncertainties.
Analysts' Views on META Stock's Growth Trajectory
Recently, Loop Capital analyst Rob Sanderson increased the price target for Meta Platforms stock to $888 from $695 and maintained a Buy rating, citing the company's upbeat Q2 2025 outlook. The 5-star analyst stated that his expectation that a drop in spending intensity from China-based advertisers would flatten revenue growth was a 'misread.' Sanderson believes that META stock remains the best non-hardware example of a tangible, 'right-now beneficiary of AI.' He expects META stock to outperform the Magnificent 7 peer group this year.
Likewise, encouraged by the Q1 results and second-quarter outlook, Guggenheim analyst Michael Morris reaffirmed a Buy rating on META stock and increased the price target to $725 from $675. The 5-star analyst noted that management's discussion and outlook focused on continued pursuit of the growth opportunities in AI, engagement, and advertising, with the guidance reflecting the impact of macro uncertainty, demand headwinds from Asian e-commerce exporters, and healthy April ad trends.
Morris believes that overall, Meta Platforms indicated that demand across its portfolio remains strong, as reflected in the 6% user growth, 5% impression growth, and 10% ad pricing growth. META's enhanced engagement is driven by AI developments, primarily through improved content recommendations, noted the analyst. Overall, Morris continues to view Meta as the 'best positioned digital ad player,' particularly as more supply is expected to come online later this year.
Is META a Good Stock to Buy?
With 41 Buys, three Holds, and one Sell recommendation, Wall Street has a Strong Buy recommendation on Meta Platforms stock. The average of $696.12 implies about 8% upside potential from current levels.
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