Why Meta Platforms Rallied Over 5% Today

Core Viewpoint - Meta Platforms' stock has shown a modest rally of 5.7% recently, but its performance over the past year has been lackluster compared to its peers in the Magnificent Seven [1][10] Group 1: Analyst Insights - Jefferies analyst Brent Thill maintains a "Buy" rating on Meta with a price target of $910, indicating a potential 45% upside from the current stock price [2][3] - Thill highlights Meta's underperformance relative to Alphabet, which has appreciated approximately 65% over the past year, while Meta's stock has remained flat [4] - The company is currently the cheapest among the Magnificent Seven stocks, trading at 28.5 times trailing earnings [5][10] Group 2: Business Developments - Meta is rolling out digital ads to all global users of its Threads platform, which has reached 400 million monthly active users [6] - Thill sees new monetization opportunities in WhatsApp and Threads, which could enhance revenue streams for Meta [5] Group 3: Future Outlook - There is optimism that Meta's significant investments in AI infrastructure and talent will start yielding returns by 2026 [8] - Despite the heavy spending on the Metaverse, which has resulted in substantial losses in the Reality Labs division, the expectation is that these investments will eventually pay off [9]