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Raymond James said Meta Platforms is demonstrating strong ad spending performance relative to other social media and search companies, supported by its Advantage+ advertising tools and recent enhancements to Business Messaging. Among these changes is a new pricing model that offers free service conversations and charges to outbound messages. In addition, Meta’s AI chatbot is currently in beta testing and could see a broader rollout in the third quarter of 2025.
Buy, $683->$812: UBS said Meta Platforms stands to benefit from consumer and advertiser demand for AI. The analysts noted that Meta is is “not necessarily exposed” to the danger of what may be slower-than-anticipated enterprise AI spending since it’s the primary user of AI technology.
https://seekingalpha.com/news/4462816-meta-gets-a-meaty-pt-hike-from-ubs-on-ai-demand-optimism
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Overweight, $920: Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Deepak Mathivanan highlighted Meta’s successful efforts in the last three years to increase engagement on commercial surfaces. He pointed to Meta’s recent filling in their defense against the FTC trial which shows total time spent on Facebook and Instagram has increased by 25-pts and 35-pts, respectively, between 2023 and 2025. Similarly, daily time spent per daily active user on Reels has increased by approximately threefold on Facebook and fourfold on Instagram.
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Overweight, $810: Barclays said WhatsApp could contribute $6 billion in additional ad revenue by 2026 while Threads could bring in $19 billion in 2027.
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WhatsApp could become a a “$40B by 2030” business segment
Outperform, $875: Evercore ISI said WhatsApp could become a “$40B by 2030” business segment, generating $20 billion in operating income and adding $7.15 to Meta’s EPS.
Evercore believes Meta is pursuing AI leadership from a position of strength.
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Metaverse budget cut signals Meta has a better sense of discipline as it embarks on AI spending, Mizuho analyst Lloyd Walmsley said
- Outperform, $815: Mizuho analyst Lloyd Walmsley said Metaverse budget cut as reported by Bloomberg signals Meta has a better sense of discipline as it embarks on AI spending.
- He expects significant share price increase and project that the cost-savings will increase 2026’s EPS by around $2.
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Buy, $875->$800: Guggenheim lowered price target on Meta Platforms to reflect assumptions of higher investments on “relatively unproven projects”. However, it notes that the outlook for Meta’s 2026 operating trends “remains constructive”.
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Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square has taken a sizable stake in Meta, representing 10% of the fund’s portfolio
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Pershing Square revealed in its latest presentation that Meta Platforms now accounts for 10% of its portfolio, roughly $2 billion based on past disclosures.
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Pershing Square’s investment thesis centers on Meta’s strength in content recommendation algorithms and targeted advertising, along with the potential to unlock additional growth through wearables and AI-powered digital assistants for enterprises.
“We believe Meta’s current share price underappreciates the company’s long-term upside potential from AI and represents a deeply discounted valuation for one of the world’s greatest businesses,” it said in the presentation.
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Pershing Square tends to concentrate its portfolio on a small number of high-conviction bets, with only 13 different positions held at the end of 2025.
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Overweight, $849->$856: Wells Fargo analyst Ken Gawrelski said compute capacity is emerging as the critical determinant of success. He highlighted that AI-demand is expected to materially exceed supply in the near to medium-term. He sees hyperscaler capacity doubling to 98 gigawatts by 2027.
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Outperform, $900: Citizens Financial said Meta’s global usage time increased by about 17% YoY for the past seven months, including 17% YoY in February, while U.S. time spent rose by around 13% YoY. This compares with much slower MAU growth (Global +6% YoY, U.S. +2% YoY), suggesting existing users are spending more time on the platforms.
Analysts opinions on youth-related lawsuits jury rulings
- Reacting to the New Mexico and California jury ruling, TD Cowen policy analyst said the “linchpin case” is 30 state attorneys general versus Meta, which goes to trial in August and believes Meta’s best hope may be getting the San Francisco case dismissed under Section 230 or getting Congress to limit their lawsuit exposure in exchange for new regulations.
- Rosenblatt said rulings of appelate and Supreme court judges are “probably friendlier to the social media companies than the local juries (and local judges) that ruled against them in these opening rounds.”
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Analysts welcomed the release of Meta’s Muse Spark LLM
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Overweight, $825: JPMorgan pointed out that the launch of Muse Spark should provide increased confidence on its scaling ability and improve investor sentiment.
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Buy, $1,144->$1,015: Rosenblatt said the launch of Muse Spark is encouraging news as it reduces skepticism that Meta is spending buckets and floundering in AI. However, it said it trimmed its estimates for Meta’s Q2 through Q4 as spike in gas prices will impact consumer spending.
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Overweight, $855->$760: KeyBanc said the reduced price target reflects a more conservative multiple amid market volatility. It said the release of Muse Spark shows Meta’s Superintelligence has made meaningful progress over a 9-month period. It added that recent ad checks leave it confident of a 20%+ medium-term growth.
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Outperform, $850: Mizuho sees the earlier-than-expected launch of Muse Spark as a positive indicator that Meta can compete in the frontier large language models. Mizuho believes driving usage, especially around the shopping mode could unlock significant monetization potential. However, Mizuho said it’s critical for Meta to provide more specifics on how it plans to productize its models beyond the chatbots.
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Outperform: William Blair said the release of Muse Spark provide some relief that Meta has delivered on a new model after delays and some past criticism on previous AI models. It pointed out that future models will likely be measured on AI performance metrics and to what extent Meta continues to make progress.
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Buy, $885: Bofa said the earlier release of Muse Spark following reports that it could be delayed helps clear an uncertainty overhang for the stock. It added that Meta outlined a roadmap of improved LLMs throughout the year, suggesting potential for performance gains across upcoming model releases.
