UBS Just Raised Its Price Target on Meta Platforms (META) Stock

Group 1 - UBS analysts raised their price targets on Meta Platforms stock to $635 per share, reaffirming their "buy" rating based on strong second-quarter earnings [1] - Meta earned $13.46 billion, or $5.16 per share, on revenue of $39 billion during the quarter ending in June, with earnings up 73% and revenue up 22% year-over-year, all exceeding analyst estimates [1] - META stock was trading at $502 per share, up about $30 or 6% on the day [1] Group 2 - Investors focused on Meta's gains in the digital ad market, which grew twice as fast as Google's parent Alphabet, despite warnings of significant capital expenditure increases next year [2] - Meta's expenses totaled $24.2 billion, including a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas over facial recognition data [2] - The company reported 3.27 billion daily active users across its platforms, benefiting from cost-cutting measures that resulted in 22,000 layoffs [2] Group 3 - CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that Meta's AI software is on track to become the most used AI assistant globally by the end of the year, utilizing an open-source development model [2] - The positive results from Meta buoyed the entire market, indicating that substantial AI investments from the past year are yielding returns [3] - Despite challenges in the metaverse, Meta is positioned to succeed in AI, with Zuckerberg's fortune estimated at $177 billion [4]