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Meta Platforms (META) shares soared more than 12% on Thursday after the tech titan reported its second-quarter financial results that topped Street estimates across the board.
Investors are cheering META shares this morning also because management guided for at least $47.5 billion in revenue in the current quarter, also well above the $46.14 billion expected.
Including the post-earnings rally, Meta stock is up some 62% versus its year-to-date low set in April.
Q2 Earnings Brought in Many Positives for Meta Stock
Meta’s strong Q2 financials reflect how significantly its artificial intelligence (AI) investments are making its core business, advertising, more efficient than ever before.
In the second quarter, the tech behemoth generated $46.56 billion in revenue from ads, handily beating consensus estimates at $43.97 billion.
META shares are rallying today also because daily active people across the company’s family of apps went up by another 50 million (sequentially) while Reality Labs, its metaverse-focused unit lost a less-than-expected $4.53 billion in Q2.
Note that Meta Platforms’ earnings release arrives only a day after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said developing superintelligence was now “in sight.”
Is There Any Further Upside Left in META Shares?
While META stock has already experienced a substantial rally in recent months, Bank of America analyst Justin Post continues to see it as the best AI pick with significant further upside.
In a post-earnings research note, Post raised his price objective on the company to $900 as “a growing list of new ad capabilities reinforces our confidence in the strength of Meta’s AI ad engine.”
According to the analyst, management’s upbeat third-quarter guidance suggests their AI investments are bearing fruits. All in all, the BofA analyst recommends owning Meta shares here as the company is “well-positioned to lead in an emerging agentic AI ecosystem.”
Catalysts for the second half of 2025 include growing usage, and ads on Threads and WhatsApp, he concluded.
Meta Platforms Is Not an Expensive Stock to Own
Despite a meteoric rally since April, Meta stock is going for a forward price-earnings multiple of about 27x at the time of writing, which isn’t particularly expensive for a top AI name.
That’s why Wall Street analysts are sticking to their consensus “Strong Buy” rating on META shares for the back half of this year.