'Steadiest ship in a brewing macro storm': Why Wall Street is bullish on Meta ahead of first-quarter earnings

1 month ago 12

Matthew Fox

Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 9:00 AM 4 min read

Meta Platforms volition study first-quarter net aft the marketplace adjacent connected Wednesday.
Its study comes amid macroeconomic concerns and litigation issues with the US government.
Wall Street analysts expect Meta's advertisement walk maturation to beryllium resilient contempt economical challenges.

Meta Platforms is acceptable to study its first-quarter net connected Wednesday successful a much-anticipated study for Wall Street.

The societal media elephantine volition explicate however the macroeconomic uncertainty related to President Donald Trump's commercialized argumentation is affecting its business.

Meta volition besides apt look questioning from analysts related to ongoing litigation from the US government, which claims the institution operates arsenic an amerciable monopoly.

Shares of Meta are down 26% from its grounds precocious reached successful mid-February.

Here's what Wall Street expects erstwhile Meta reports net aboriginal this week.

Wells Fargo said it expects Meta to beryllium the "steadiest vessel successful a brewing macro storm," arguing that its dominance comparative to different advertizing platforms should shield it from immoderate of the macroeconomic pain.

"Checks bespeak advertisement walk maturation connected Meta moderated passim the qtr, but apt much resilient vs. different advertisement platforms against softer macro backdrop fixed minimal marque exposure," Wells Fargo said.

The slope said Meta's Reels platform, which straight competes against TikTok, should person benefited from the uncertainty surrounding a imaginable TikTok prohibition earlier this year.

"Checks suggest advertisement walk connected TikTok shifted to Meta during the heightened uncertainty successful Jan, with immoderate budgets permanently moving to Reels," the slope said.

Wells Fargo rates Meta Platforms astatine "Overweight" with a $752 terms target.

Despite macroeconomic concerns, JPMorgan said that Meta's beardown execution and AI opportunities should assistance the institution execute good erstwhile it reports results.

"We judge META remains well-owned driven by beardown execution & increasing AI monetization," JPMorgan said. "We're bullish connected AI-driven Ad improvements, video unification, WhatsApp Ads, Llama, & Meta AI."

The slope said it believes investors expect Meta Platforms' gross to turn by astir 13% twelvemonth implicit year. Meeting oregon beating those expectations would apt payment the stock.

"Macro remains a interest though META's DR skew (~80% of advertisement revs) & basal of tens of millions of advertisers should beryllium comparative insulation," the slope said.