Last year, one of the better performers among the Magnificent 7 was Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META | META Price Prediction). But its third-quarter earnings report raised investor concerns about the company’s massive capital spending on artificial intelligence initiatives. In addition, Meta said it planned to make significant cuts to the budget of its Reality Labs metaverse division in the coming year. The stock is down 10.9% since the quarterly report was released.
Strong quarterly reports earlier in 2025 (despite a tax charge) had lent credence to the claim that Meta would continue to outshine its competitors over the coming year. The share price hit an all-time high of $796.25 back in August. The stock is still trying to recover from the pullback in November, and it is now up fractionally year over year, underperforming the broader market. Furthermore, the near-term future of the economy is uncertain—just like the markets themselves—and Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a controversial figure. Certainly, Zuckerberg’s sudden shift to the metaverse and brand name change to Meta Platforms raised a few eyebrows several years ago.
Now, the Meta Platforms CEO is shifting the company’s focus and riding a powerful, bullish trend. Against this complex backdrop with many moving parts, investors should consider the wide range of Meta stock price targets and formulate a strategy for all possible outcomes. To help, 24/7 Wall St. conducted some analysis. Let’s jump in.
Why Invest in Meta Platforms?
Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room. Investors should not rely on Meta Platforms’ Reality Labs metaverse business to drive the company’s near-term future growth. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Reality Labs generated $955 million in revenue, or a 12% year-over-year decline. During that same time frame, Reality Labs recorded a loss from operations of $6.02 billion, and the CFO projected that loss in 2026 would be similar to 2025 levels.
Fortunately, it appears that the CEO’s attention has turned to a different tech field lately. In particular, Zuckerberg seems to expect AI to be Meta Platforms’ key driver going forward. AI integrations into Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp could provide an economic moat for Meta Platforms if new features translate to greater user engagement. WhatsApp, in particular, has seen notable growth with more than 3 billion monthly users now.
Meta’s AI focus evidently helped the company succeed in the fourth quarter of the year despite losses in its metaverse business. Impressively, Meta Platforms grew its revenue 24% year over year to $59.9 billion, beating Wall Street’s consensus call for $58.5 billion. Furthermore, diluted earnings per share (EPS) increased 9% to $8.88, outpacing the analysts’ consensus estimate of $8.21.
There’s no doubt that Zuckerberg is all-in on the AI revolution now. He envisions a future in which AI will be used for “a lot” of “social tasks.” And he believes it’s “really compelling” that AI will “get to know you better and better.” Some reporters have expressed skepticism of an AI-infused future. Yet, if Meta Platforms can parlay machine learning into profits, investors shouldn’t dismiss the growth potential of Meta stock.
Another key driver for Meta Platforms is its Threads short-form messaging platform. Granted, Threads is still playing catch-up to the popular X platform, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk owns. Still, Threads is making inroads as its monthly active user count grew from 320 million in 2024’s fourth quarter to 400 million in late 2025. That’s not at the level of X, which reportedly has around 600 million monthly active users. Perhaps AI feature integration can make Threads even more competitive with X going forward.
The company projects first-quarter 2026 revenue in a range from $53.5 billion to $56.5 billion. That is expected to be driven primarily by ongoing strength in its advertising business, bolstered by the positive impact of AI-driven enhancements to ad targeting and user engagement across its family of apps.
Meta Platforms as a Stock
It is impossible to know how the economy will perform going forward. Similarly, it remains unclear whether Meta Platforms will achieve significant returns on its AI investments. Yet, these unknowns will not stop analysts from publishing their Meta stock price predictions.
Oppenheimer and Benchmark downgraded the stock following the third-quarter earnings release, citing increased capex concerns. However, BofA Securities has reiterated its Buy rating on the shares, keeping its price target at $900 and affirming long-term confidence in Meta, citing its user base and potential AI integration opportunities. Cantor Fitzgerald also reaffirmed its positive stance by reiterating an Overweight rating and $920 price target. It anticipates that improvements in AI execution will lead to a “sentiment reversal” for the company in 2026.
The aforementioned uncertainties are reflected in the wide range of Wall Street analysts’ price targets for Meta Platforms. The Zuckerberg-led firm has a high price target of $1,117.00, a median price target of $840.07, and a low target price of $700.00. However, the consensus recommendation of 67 analysts covering the stock remains to buy shares.
| Estimate | Price Target | Change From Current Price |
| Low | $700.00 | 4.7% |
| Median | $840.07 | 25.6% |
| High | $1,117.00 | 67.0% |
Meta Platforms 2026 Outlook
Meta Platforms raised its 2026 capex estimate to a range of $115 billion to $135 billion. This represents a nearly 73% increase over the $72.22 billion spent in 2025. By now, you can probably guess what Meta Platforms is spending those extra billions on. If you guessed AI, you are correct. More specifically, Meta Platforms’ management anticipates “additional data center investments to support our artificial intelligence efforts as well as an increase in the expected cost of infrastructure hardware.”
Hence, the multi-billion-dollar question is whether Meta Platforms can effectively leverage its costly AI enhancements. That’s difficult to predict. The same goes for the state of the economy, which might not support an increase in ad spending if macroeconomic conditions deteriorate in the remainder of this year.
24/7 Wall St.’s Meta forecast is a more bullish than the mean forecast, calling for the share price to rise to $935.29 by the end of 2026. That implies a run of 39.9%. It is based on the company’s ability to sustain strong ad revenue while increasing efficiency. This should drive its bottom line despite higher capital expenditures for AI objectives.
Ultimately, your price target for Meta Platforms stock should depend on whether you expect the company to take full advantage of ramped-up AI features. If so, then get ready for Meta Platforms stock to head for new all-time highs eventually. However, it may be a bumpy ride along the way.
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