Where Will It Be in 1 Year (Dec 18)

This year, one of the better performers among the Magnificent 7 had been Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META). But its third-quarter earnings report raised investor concerns about the company’s massive capital spending on artificial intelligence initiatives. In addition, Meta says it plans to make significant cuts to the budget of its Reality Labs metaverse division in the coming year. The stock is down 13.6% since the quarterly report was released.

Strong quarterly reports earlier this year (despite a tax charge) had lent credence to the claim that Meta would continue to outshine its competitors over the next year. The share price hit an all-time high of $796.25 back in August. Due to the recent pullback, the stock is up 4.9% 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.

• Meta Platforms Inc.’s (NASDAQ: META) AI push has been a key driver for the company in 2025, with integrations coming across numerous platforms, which is fueling engagement and increasing ad sales.

• Despite economic cloudiness, Meta announced that its 2025 capital expenditures (capex) estimate increased significantly, much of which will be allocated to AI project development and integration.

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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.

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 Q3 2025, Reality Labs generated $470 million in revenue, up from $370 million in revenue in the prior quarter. However, during that same time frame, Reality Labs recorded a loss from operations of $4.43 billion.

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 third quarter of the year despite losses in its metaverse business. Impressively, Meta Platforms grew its revenue 26% year over year to $51.2 billion, beating Wall Street’s consensus call for $49.5 billion. Furthermore, excluding a one-time tax charge, the company’s earnings per share (EPS) surged 20% to $7.25, easily outpacing the analysts’ consensus estimate of $6.74.

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 is owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Still, Threads is making inroads as its monthly active user count grew from 320 million in 2024’s fourth quarter to 350 million in Q1 of 2025. That’s not at the level of X, which reportedly has more than 580 million monthly active users. Yet, perhaps AI feature integration can make Threads even more competitive with X in the coming quarters.

The company expects fourth-quarter 2025 revenue to range from $56 billion to $59 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.

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. These unknowns will not stop analysts from publishing their Meta stock price predictions, though.

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 $837.92, and a low target price of $685.00. However, the consensus recommendation of 67 analysts covering the stock remains to buy shares.

Meta Platforms raised its 2025 capex estimate from a range of $66 billion to $72 billion to a range of $70 billion to $72 billion. 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 next year. That implies a run of 44.0%. 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 eventually head for new all-time highs. However, it may be a bumpy ride along the way.

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