Meta Platforms reported better-than-expected quarterly results , and analysts are feeling optimistic about its performance going forward. Meta earned $7.14 per share on revenue of $47.52 billion during the second quarter, while analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected $5.92 per share and $44.80 billion in revenue. The company also said that it anticipates its sales for the third quarter to be between $47.5 billion and $50.5 billion, above the $46.14 billion analysts polled by LSEG had penciled in. Additionally, the company raised its full-year forecast for capital expenditures, saying that will be between $66 billion and $72 billion, higher than the previous estimate of $64 billion to $72 billion. Shares were last up more than 12% in the premarket Thursday. META 1D mountain META, 1-day Many analysts kept their buy or outperform equivalent ratings on the “Magnificent Seven” name following its report and raised their price targets. Here’s what some of them said. Citi keeps buy and top pick rating and shoots target up to $915 from $803 Analyst Ronald Josey’s target implies almost 32% upside. “With growing engagement rates given improvements to Meta’s AI Ranking & Recommendation models, newer ad products delivering greater conversion rates, and FoA OI margin expansion, Meta’s 2Q results and 3Q guidance came in significantly above expectations across both revenue and profitability. Key here, we believe these trends can continue as Meta invests across its core AI Foundation Models, expands monetization to newer surfaces like WA, Threads, and Business AI, and delivers greater ROAS for its advertisers. We recognize investments in Meta’s Superintelligence Labs are ramping and we have materially increased our ’26 CapEx and expense projections as a result. But given continued improvements to engagement and monetization we believe Meta has multiple ST/MT/LT growth catalysts ahead.” Bank of America maintains buy rating and hikes target to $900 from $775 Analyst Justin Post’s target implies more than 29% upside. “A strong 3Q outlook suggests AI investments are delivering results & we think street will remain optimistic on future revenue upside potential. … A growing list of new ad capabilities reinforces our confidence in the strength of Meta’s AI ad engine. We continue to view Meta as one of the top AI beneficiaries in our coverage & believe the company is well positioned to lead in an emerging agentic AI ecosystem. For 2H, we see multiple drivers (growing usage, AI ad stack integrations, and ads in Threads/WhatsApp) of potential upside.” UBS reaffirms its buy rating and hikes target to $897 from $812 Analyst Stephen Ju’s target reflects around 29% upside. “On the surface, today’s results were a blockbuster: ad revenue trajectory was better than expected with 2Q25 beating and 3Q25 guided above expectations, ads growth was more so driven by impressions rather than pricing suggesting the trajectory can sustain over the mid term, and Threads and WhatsApp monetization ramps has begun (albeit at low levels). … Although the GenAI build costs sting today, we maintain our Buy rating on META shares given path to lighting up several new revenue vectors remains clear (Business AI, Search in Meta AI).” Morgan Stanley remains overweight and raises target to $850 from $750 Analyst Brian Nowak’s target calls for more than 22% upside. “META’s 2Q results and 3Q guide speak to how continued GPU-enabled algorithmic improvements and advances are driving even better-than-expected lifts to engagement and monetization … Bottom line, we are left with higher near-term (1-, 2-, 3-year) profitability and a growing list of long-term optionalities for further core growth (engagement and/or monetization improvements, content creation tools, Meta AI, search, business agents, devices, etc.) or superintelligence/GenAI to drive even longer growth.” Bernstein reiterates outperform rating and increases target to $900 from $775 Analyst Mark Shmulik’s target sees more than 29% upside. “The real news here was commentary that expenses are likely growing 20%+ Y/Y in 2026 tied to all those AI hires and server depreciation, while CapEx is set to grow another $30B Y/Y to ~$100B! These are hyperscaler numbers! But if core performance can continue at this level and there’s visible progress towards Superintelligence with traction across any of Meta AI, Business messaging, or Wearables, there’s no telling what the ceiling is for Meta.” Baird maintains its outperform rating and ups target to $820 from $740 Analyst Colin Sebastian’s target calls for about 18% upside. “As the saying goes, Meta is “firing on all cylinders” with accelerating growth and significant incremental margins ( > 65%) ahead of the significant stepup in platform investments. While Q2 industry checks were positive, we’d highlight surprising upside to user growth, monetization and engagement, with AI tools continuing to benefit both the user experience (e.g., content recommendations, relevant ads, impression growth accelerating) and advertisers (automation, improving conversion, ROI). Big focus is building out AI superintelligence (AI smarter than humans), which is a multi-year project with meaningful long-term revenue potential.”
