The forthcoming quarterly results from Meta Platforms on Wednesday have analysts chomping at the bit. Stock in the Facebook-parent company has already surged more than 148% since January. Meanwhile, analysts at firms including JPMorgan have increased forecasts on the stock into the report. Meta’s efforts to cut costs, which has included several rounds of layoffs, as well as the launch of a Twitter-rival Threads has contributed to analyst optimism over the company’s trajectory. Analysts polled by FactSet are forecasting adjusted earnings per share of $2.93. Ahead of Meta’s second-quarter results on Wednesday after the closing bell, here’s how some analysts on Wall Street are trading the social media behemoth. Citi analyst Ronald Josey reiterated a buy rating on Meta stock on Tuesday, accompanied by a $360 per share price target. Josey’s forecast implies 22.2% upside from Tuesday’s $294.47 close. Josey says he expects Meta to surpass consensus expectations, and pointed toward potentially higher engagement derived from Reels as well as more robust ad spending across its platforms. “Given an improving online advertising market (per our checks), ad product innovations like Click-to-Message, Sponsored Reels, and Advantage+, and improving profitability, we look for Meta to deliver 2Q23 results that are above consensus expectations,” Josey said. Morgan Stanley’s Brian Nowak is similarly optimistic on Meta with an overweight rating and a $350 per share price target, which amounts to about 19% upside. Nowak says artificial intelligence partnerships with Microsoft and Amazon should underpin developer adoption of Meta’s products. META YTD mountain Meta stock has surged nearly 150% from the start of the year. “…we view META’s open source approach and developer adoption as a way to drive faster adoption of its tools, creating more feedback for its AI models, and ultimately leading to stronger core application offerings, creator and advertiser AI tools/features,” Nowak wrote in a July 18 note. Bank of America’s Justin Post reiterated his buy rating on Meta stock in a July 17 note with a $350 per share price target, similarly to Nowak. Post, however, upwardly revised revenue estimates for fiscal year 2024 by 2% to $2.3 billion, citing higher average revenue per user metrics as well as a lower recession risk and the launch of Threads. “We believe company’s change in investment philosophy since late last year should drive ongoing margin expansion and see potential for further EPS upside,” Post said. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
