Meta ‘s advertising engine and expanding AI capabilities position it to unlock meaningful incremental revenue over time, according to Rothschild & Co Redburn. The investment firm upgraded the social media stock to a buy rating from neutral. Analyst James Cordwell also lifted his price target to $900 per share from $740. Shares of Meta have added just 2% over the past 12 months. Cordwell’s revised price forecast implies the stock could rally 37% from here. META 1Y mountain META 1Y chart “With imminent FY26 guidance set to leave estimates factoring in all the cost and little upside from AI, now seems opportune for investors to start building positions,” Cordwell wrote. The analyst cited Meta’s advertising “demand machine,” which he called the best in the world, as a major catalyst for the stock. “Meta already has unrivalled capabilities matching user demand with advertiser supply,” he wrote. “There is clear potential to further improve this ‘demand machine’ by extending Andromeda, GEM and Lattice, and also leveraging hardware advances to extend context windows and thus improve predictive intelligence.” The current backdrop also offers opportune timing for the artificial intelligence trade, with an AI reboot largely coinciding with the Nvidia Blackwell cycle. Cordwell also believes that Alexandr Wang, Meta’s chief AI officer, is “better qualified than appreciated.” The acquisition of AI agent firm Manus could also boost Meta’s odds of being “back close to the frontier by mid-year.” Meta is also set to capitalize on two compelling AI opportunities. This includes developing agentic AI for subject-matter experts and revolutionizing the entertainment industry with AI video generation, Cordwell wrote. “Both offer compelling incremental revenue potential, with Meta’s extensive SME customer base and already strong position in video leaving it uniquely positioned,” he added.
