Though hardly the most exciting stock of late 2024 at face value, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) has, nonetheless, been steadily gaining ground as it has been recording record high after record high.
Such price performance was, as could be expected, by multiple optimistic updates from some of the most high-profile analyst firms. Specifically, there have been four major revisions of META stock ratings and price targets since November 20, and all of them have been bullish.
Analysts update META stock forecast
To begin with, Jefferies triggered significant buying activity when the investment bank, on November 20, declared Mark Zuckerberg’s company a ‘top AI winner’ after it hired Clara Shih, the former CEO of AI at Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), to help set up the firm’s new Business AI group.
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On December 2, Singapore’s KGI Securities offered a jaw-dropping forecast upgrade with its META stock price target rising from $665 to $725.
On December 6, First Shanghai contributed to proving Meta Platform’s popularity in East and Southeast Asia, similarly giving a major boost to the shares of Mark Zuckerberg’s technology giant. First Shanghai graced Meta with a prediction revision from $600 to $710, along with maintaining the ‘buy’ rating.
Still, despite it appearing as only a modest price target upgrade, the most recent META share price revision might be the most interesting one.
Meta is the ‘AI technology leader’ and Zuckerberg ‘the best CEO’
On December 10, Piper Sandler’s Thomas Champion gave the company a glowing review, describing it as ‘an AI technology leader’ and calling Zuckerberg ‘the best CEO in consumer internet.’
According to the analyst, Meta Platforms’ Llama artificial intelligence (AI) model will prove foundational. He also implied that the products emerging for the ‘Agentic’ phase of AI development would be particularly impressive.
Furthermore, Champion reflected on the big tech firm’s more traditional business, noting that engagement with Facebook Blue, and Instagram among the youth – teenagers, to be precise – has been on the rise. He highlighted that such growth is ‘impressive given META’s scale and existing brand.’
However, the analyst warned that Meta Platforms’ will likely face a tough first half of 2025 given the past performance and investor expectations, perhaps justifying the relatively modest price target increase from $650 to $670.
Meta stock price analysis
Looking at META stock’s performance in 2024, it is easy to see why analysts have become increasingly bullish. Since the start of the year, the shares have been gaining ground with few major setbacks.
Indeed, trading has not been more choppy than would be expected from a stock climbing toward record highs, and META is 9.96% in the green year-to-date (YTD).
More recent performance has also been solid as it saw a 6.17% climb in the last 30 days, though the last 7 days featured a slowdown and an upward move of only 1.13% to the press time price of $619.20.
