Analysts revise Meta stock price target

Slowly but surely, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) has been growing its presence and role in the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

The recent Meta Connect event, in particular, has helped add to the hype surrounding the social media giant’s venture into AI and the expansion of its hardware offering and helped the firm’s already strong stock market performance in September gain additional steam.

Wall Street experts appear equally impressed with Meta Platform’s developments, as exemplified both by its strong overall rating and the string of bullish 12-month price target revisions.

To be precise, META shares are considered a ‘strong buy’ with as many as 59 of the 69 experts on the stock analysis platform TradingVIew recommending buying the stock.

Another eight are ‘neutral,’ and two believe selling META is the right call, per the data retrieved by Finbold on October 3.

The optimism is also reflected in the spread of 12-month price targets. Overall, META stock is expected to climb 2.38% from its press time price of $573.42 and reach $588.61 sometime in the coming 52 weeks.

The highest forecast – assigned by Rosenblatt Securities on September 26 – would see the social media company rise even higher and hit $811, demonstrating the enthusiasm surrounding Meta shares.

Finally, early October rating revisions have mostly remained favorable to Meta Platforms. 

Pivotal Research, for example, highlighted the company’s strong revenue growth outlook, driven both by the introduction of new and expansion of old products and services but also the cost-cutting potential of AI. Such bullish analysis was, as is to be expected, accompanied by a ‘buy’ rating and a high $780 price target.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) likewise emphasized META’s increased prominence among AI stocks when it reiterated the ‘overweight’ – ‘buy’ –  rating and raised the price forecast from $647 to $652 on October 2.

The October 1 revision by Canaccord Genuity also saw a major bullish readjustment when it raised its 12-month META stock price target from $600 to $675, and the most recent revision, provided by RBC Capital on the morning of October 3, maintained a ‘buy’ rating and raised the prediction from $570 to $630.

While much has been said about Meta’s exciting design for its augmented reality (AG) glasses and its increased faith in and emphasis on artificial intelligence, something darker may have taken place during the Connect event.

Mark Zuckerberg reportedly estimated that creators and publishers are overvaluing their products for AI training – a controversial statement given the allegations of rampant intellectual property (IP) theft among artificial intelligence (AI) firms – and showcased the abilities of new technology with artificial influencers.

Though both the statement and the showcase can be seen as highly bullish as investors are likely to welcome cutting-edge advancements and cost-cutting measures, they also offer a glimpse into a future where the ‘Dead Internet’ is not a theory but a reality of robots pinging each other to sell all kinds of trife to one another with little to no human activity in sight.