Latest news with #Advantage+
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
User Engagement & AI Fuel Blockbuster Q1 Results for META Platforms Stock
I've been pounding the table on Meta Platforms (META) for years, writing several articles about why it's a screaming buy. Following the stock's steep sell-off last month as tariff-driven fears overwhelmed the market, I took advantage of the situation and continued adding to my long META position. Protect Your Portfolio Against Market Uncertainty Meta Platforms (META) price history over the past twelve months Buying the dip was a great idea, as the social media giant's Q1 earnings blew the doors off expectations last week, forcing analysts to scramble and reprice the stock. Yet, the core story hasn't changed: Meta's growth is relentless, and its shares are ultra cheap compared to recent quarters. Earlier today, DBS analyst Sachin Mittal maintained his bullish stance on META reiterating a Buy rating with a lowered price target of $608 per share. In a research note, Mittal said that Meta Platforms' strong financial performance and strategic initiatives are the reasons for sustained upside, with AI being the single largest driver of current revenues and future expectations. Importantly, Mittal pointed that 'successful monetization efforts, particularly with its Reels feature, which has seen a substantial increase in user engagement and monetization.' Sustained Excellence Fuels Revenue Surge Meta's Q1 was a masterclass in execution, with revenue surpassing $42.3 billion, up 16% year-over-year, smashing estimates by nearly $1 billion. The company's Family Daily Active People (DAP) climbed to 3.43 billion, a 6% jump, reflecting sticky user engagement across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. This, paired with AI-driven content recommendations, boosted ad impressions by 5%, while average ad prices rose 10%. Meta Platforms Forecast EPS vs Actual EPS Management credited AI tools like the Advantage+ suite for sharpening ad targeting, supporting higher returns for advertisers, and fueling engagement. For context, Instagram Reels alone saw 20% year-over-year growth. Meta AI, now with nearly 1 billion monthly active users, is weaving personalized experiences that keep users hooked, directly lifting these metrics. It would seem Meta's heavy investment in AI infrastructure and models like Llama is the company's 'secret sauce', since they optimize everything from content curation to ad delivery. CFO Susan Li noted on the earnings call that these tools are 'unlocking new levels of efficiency and engagement,' particularly in short-form video and messaging. So the game has shifted from just growing the user base to employing more intelligent systems, making every interaction more valuable, and, in turn, pushing revenue to new heights.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta's Threads opens up ads to global advertisers
Months after first testing ads in select markets, including the U.S., Meta on Wednesday announced that its Instagram Threads app would now expand ads to all advertisers worldwide. The expansion will allow eligible advertisers to reach Threads's over 320 million monthly active users, and it will include access to an inventory filter to control the sensitivity level of content next to which the ads run. The company says that the new ad placement within the Threads feed will be switched on by default for all new ad campaigns that use either Meta's Advantage+ or Manual Placements. However, advertisers on the latter plan will have the option to opt out of the Threads feed. Meta notes that the ads themselves will only be delivered in select markets at launch and will roll out to more markets over time. To date, Threads has been testing ads in the U.S. and Japan. The expansion signals that Meta believes that the Threads community is now robust enough to monetize and compete for advertiser dollars against its top rival, Elon Musk's X. What's more, Meta believes its platform is more advertiser-friendly, as three out of four Threads users already follow at least one business on the app. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors on the comapny's most recent earnings call in January that he expects Threads to reach over 1 billion people over the next "several years." He also noted that the network had been adding "more than 1 million sign-ups per day." However, the Threads app itself didn't entirely grow organically. Instead, it benefited from the network effects of being connected to Instagram, building on Instagram's existing friend graph when onboarding new users. That made Threads nearly instantly function as an extension of users' Instagram networks, where they could follow a similar set of friends, creators, and brands as before. That competitive edge, built on the base of owning and operating some of the world's biggest social networks, is something Meta is now defending in its antitrust trial with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The trial could ultimately result in Meta being forced to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp, if the government's prosecution is successful. To help grow Threads, Meta has borrowed concepts from emerging social networks like Mastodon and Bluesky. Like Mastodon, Meta is integrating its app with the ActivityPub protocol, which connects Threads to a wider, decentralized open web known as the fediverse. Though that integration has yet to complete, Threads could one day easily become the largest service operating in the fediverse as a result, dwarfing Mastodon's 8+ million registered users and its under one million monthly actives. In total, the fediverse today (not including Threads) has north of 16 million users. Threads has also copied some of Bluesky's more popular features, including the ability to create custom feeds outside of the default algorithmic feed, and introduced its own take on Bluesky's Starter Packs, offering curated lists of recommended users for newcomers to follow. Unlike Bluesky, which now has over 35 million users, Threads users are still defaulted to Threads' "For You" feed when they launch the app. They also don't have the option to control their own moderation preferences, as Bluesky users do. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta's Threads opens up ads to global advertisers
Months after first testing ads in select markets, including the U.S., Meta on Wednesday announced that its Instagram Threads app would now expand ads to all advertisers worldwide. The expansion will allow eligible advertisers to reach Threads's over 320 million monthly active users, and it will include access to an inventory filter to control the sensitivity level of content next to which the ads run. The company says that the new ad placement within the Threads feed will be switched on by default for all new ad campaigns that use either Meta's Advantage+ or Manual Placements. However, advertisers on the latter plan will have the option to opt out of the Threads feed. Meta notes that the ads themselves will only be delivered in select markets at launch and will roll out to more markets over time. To date, Threads has been testing ads in the U.S. and Japan. The expansion signals that Meta believes that the Threads community is now robust enough to monetize and compete for advertiser dollars against its top rival, Elon Musk's X. What's more, Meta believes its platform is more advertiser-friendly, as three out of four Threads users already follow at least one business on the app. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors on the comapny's most recent earnings call in January that he expects Threads to reach over 1 billion people over the next "several years." He also noted that the network had been adding "more than 1 million sign-ups per day." However, the Threads app itself didn't entirely grow organically. Instead, it benefited from the network effects of being connected to Instagram, building on Instagram's existing friend graph when onboarding new users. That made Threads nearly instantly function as an extension of users' Instagram networks, where they could follow a similar set of friends, creators, and brands as before. That competitive edge, built on the base of owning and operating some of the world's biggest social networks, is something Meta is now defending in its antitrust trial with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The trial could ultimately result in Meta being forced to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp, if the government's prosecution is successful. To help grow Threads, Meta has borrowed concepts from emerging social networks like Mastodon and Bluesky. Like Mastodon, Meta is integrating its app with the ActivityPub protocol, which connects Threads to a wider, decentralized open web known as the fediverse. Though that integration has yet to complete, Threads could one day easily become the largest service operating in the fediverse as a result, dwarfing Mastodon's 8+ million registered users and its under one million monthly actives. In total, the fediverse today (not including Threads) has north of 16 million users. Threads has also copied some of Bluesky's more popular features, including the ability to create custom feeds outside of the default algorithmic feed, and introduced its own take on Bluesky's Starter Packs, offering curated lists of recommended users for newcomers to follow. Unlike Bluesky, which now has over 35 million users, Threads users are still defaulted to Threads' "For You" feed when they launch the app. They also don't have the option to control their own moderation preferences, as Bluesky users do. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) the Least Risky Internet Stock To Invest In?
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) stands against other least risky internet stocks to invest in. Investors usually do not waste any time reminding everyone of the dot-com bubble whenever the market takes a turn for the worse. With a recession imminent, some sectors have already corrected by so much that they are in bear market territory. Internet stocks belong to the same group. Analysts at Evercore believe most of the internet stocks have very limited exposure to tariffs but still get hammered every time the market crashes on tariff developments. This means these stocks now present a favorable risk-to-reward ratio for investors. We therefore decided to dig into the details of each of these internet stocks. To come up with our list of the 10 least risky internet stocks, we used the list compiled by Evercore's analysts and ranked them by risk, with the least risky stock taking the number one spot. Photo by Timothy Hales Bennett on Unsplash Meta Platforms, Inc. is the developer of products that help people to share and connect with their family and friends. It enables them to connect through personal computers, augmented reality, wearables, mobile devices, and virtual reality and mixed reality headsets. The company operates in Reality Labs (RL) and Family of Apps (FoA) segments. Guggenheim reiterated its Buy rating on the stock last week, citing strong user engagement on its platforms as a major strength for the company. Regardless of macroeconomic uncertainty, the firm remains a preferred choice for advertisers. The research firm expects Meta to benefit from growth in reels and increased efficiency through its Advantage+ platform. Although the firm cut its target price to $675, it still sees a potential upside of 30.8%. A few days ago, the company announced the expansion of its artificial intelligence models. As per the announcement, Meta will use public content from European Union users to train its AI models. EU users of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram will be notified about the data collection. 'We're following the example set by others, including Google and OpenAI, both of which have already used data from European users to train their AI models. We're proud that our approach is more transparent than many of our industry counterparts.' With regulation becoming an increasing risk for these tech companies, it is interesting to see META getting proactive and complying from the beginning rather than waiting for regulatory authorities to crack down later. Overall, META ranks 5th on our list of least risky internet stocks to invest in. While we acknowledge the potential of META as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that has gone up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks have lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than META but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Will Rebound More Than Any Other This Year (Hint: It's Not Nvidia)
Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks delivered healthy gains in 2023 and 2024. However, due to the recent broad market sell-off, 2025 has been a tough year so far for companies looking to benefit from the fast-growing adoption of this technology. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite index briefly entered bear territory and is down 15% from its all-time high as of this writing. The tariff-related turmoil has sent investors into risk-reduction mode as they look to protect their capital amid the economic uncertainty caused by a potential trade war. This explains why AI leader Nvidia has dropped 15% year to date despite delivering solid results recently. The stock was flying high previously as tech giants and countries lined up to buy its AI data center graphics cards. However, the current market conditions have led many investors to book profits in the stock. AI adoption is in its early phases, and Nvidia has enough catalysts that could help sustain healthy growth for a long time to come, but the stock could remain under pressure from tariff-related uncertainty. However, there is another tech giant that could come out of its recent slump and even outpace Nvidia's returns in 2025 and beyond -- Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). Known for its popular social media applications -- including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp -- Meta has built a massive user base that puts it in a strong position to capitalize on the proliferation of AI within digital marketing. At the end of 2024, the number of daily active users across Meta's family of apps stood at 3.35 billion. That's around 40% of the world's population. That makes Meta one of the top choices for brands and businesses looking for access to a huge audience. The social media giant has been offering AI tools to its advertisers to help them reach customers more efficiently. For instance, Advantage+ helps advertisers automate the creation of ads, freeing up their time to focus on more strategic work. And Advantage+ uses AI to help businesses optimize ad campaigns to deliver the best results. The company's AI ad tools are giving advertisers higher returns. According to eMarketer, Meta's AI-powered ads had 22% higher returns in 2024 compared to the average ad on its platform. AI helps customers improve audience targeting for higher engagement and improved conversion rates. Thus, advertisers are willing to pay more for access to Meta's apps. This has led to a 14% increase in the company's average price per ad in the fourth quarter of 2024. In just six months, the number of advertisers using Meta's generative AI ad tools has also quadrupled to 4 million. To provide more AI features for businesses, the company's upcoming Llama 4 open-source model is going to help them integrate agentic AI functions into their operations. With its new AI reasoning model, Meta aims to reach small businesses that don't have the resources to hire development teams. A company executive recently pointed out that 200 million small businesses are using its services globally. It plans to help those businesses reduce redundancies, find more customers, and provide better services with its agentic AI solutions. Agentic AI is a major opportunity with one estimate from predicting 44% annual growth for the industry through 2034. The technology's ability to operate autonomously and perform tasks without the need for human intervention makes it particularly attractive. In all, Meta Platforms is on track to make the most of large AI-related business opportunities in the long run. Its core digital advertising market, for instance, is expected to exceed $1.2 trillion in revenue by 2030, growing 15% annually. Meta is growing even faster with 22% revenue growth in 2024 to $160.6 billion, thanks in part to the implementation of AI tools. Meta Platforms carries a 12-month median price target of $770 among 74 analysts covering the stock, with 86% of them rating it a buy. That price target represents a gain of 31% from where the stock trades as of this writing. Analysts also expect revenue to jump 14% in 2025 to $187.7 billion, but the fast-growing adoption of generative AI tools within the digital ad market could help the company beat that projection. Strong bottom-line growth has pushed the company's valuation to just 24 times trailing earnings -- its lowest level in two years and a discount to the Nasdaq 100 index's price-to-earnings ratio of 27. Buying this stock seems like the smart thing to do before it starts soaring once again. Before you buy stock in Meta Platforms, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Meta Platforms wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $469,399!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $590,231!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 731% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 146% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of April 5, 2025 Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Harsh Chauhan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Will Rebound More Than Any Other This Year (Hint: It's Not Nvidia) was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
