2024 was a watershed year for Meta Platforms (META). The owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp reclaimed its trillion-dollar market cap status in January and never really looked back.
META stock rallied more than 66% in 2024 due to strong corporate earnings, a booming advertising business, and the integration of generative artificial intelligence across its products.
Analysts believe these factors will drive META stock to new highs in 2025 as deeper AI integration helps the company increase its revenues and user engagement across its social media platforms.
According to various forecasts, Meta’s share price is poised to rise between 8% and 28% in 2025, further cementing its place among the world’s most valuable companies.
Meta stock price predictions for 2025
| Forecaster | Price Prediction for 2025 |
| Goldman Sachs | $336 |
| Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co | $660 |
| Bernstein | $675 |
| Truist Securities | $700 |
| JPMorgan | $725 |
| Citi | $753 |
Analysts at Goldman Sachs believe Meta is poised to reclaim all-time highs in 2025. The investment bank has given the company a price target of $636, which is $2 below its Dec. 11 record high.
Goldman’s price target is based on Meta’s revenue prediction for the fourth quarter.
The Mark Zuckerberg-led company said it expects to generate up to $48 billion in sales in the final quarter of 2024. This has the potential to drive Meta’s earnings even higher.
Equity research firm Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co has given a more ambitious price target of $660. Analyst Brian White said the company has outperformed its mega-cap peers but is still reasonably priced at current levels.
“Despite the stock’s sharp rise, Meta’s valuation remains reasonable in our view,” said White. “Moreover, we believe the ramp of newer products, the infusion of gen AI across the portfolio, and the expansion of advertising across a wider swath of the platform position Meta well in 2025.”
On the topic of valuation, Meta currently has a price-to-earnings ratio of around 28, which is lower than other comparable tech giants. The company is growing at a similar pace as it was between 2019 and 2021, which was another boom period for the META stock.
Equity research firm Bernstein cited similar reasons when it lifted Meta’s target price to $675 from $600. The social media giant has an attractive risk-reward profile thanks to its “healthy core business” and “AI winner story.”
Earlier in 2024, Meta disclosed that it’s spending between $35 billion and $40 billion on AI infrastructure. In fact, Zuckerberg said he would continue to pour billions into AI development so long as ad revenue continues to flow.
According to Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller, Meta’s AI investments are essential in keeping “consumers and clicks that drive revenue.”
For Truist Securities, a Meta price target of $700 is not unreasonable, given the social media company’s user and engagement growth. This is why Truist expects Meta’s ad revenue growth to outpace the broader digital advertising industry by a wide margin.
Truist called Meta the “social king that keeps reinventing itself,” which is not an easy feat given the 3 billion-plus daily active users across its platforms.
To say that ad revenue is crucial for Meta would be a huge understatement. By 2023, more than 98% of company-wide revenues came from ads.
In the third quarter of 2024, Meta’s ad revenue was $39.9 billion, increasing 19% year-over-year. The growth was fueled by “AI-ad targeting” and improved impressions.
JPMorgan also issued one of the biggest upgrades to Meta stock. Analysts at the investment bank raised their price target to $725 from $660 as the social media juggernaut is poised to lead the transition toward AI agents and applications.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang agrees, claiming there will come a day when Meta’s AI tech would be used by millions of businesses.
“Every single restaurant, every single website will probably, in the future, have these AIs,” Huang said in reference to Meta’s AI technology.
Citi has the most bullish Meta price target, believing the “momentum in 2024 across most internet subsectors should continue into 2025.” Analysts led by Ronald Josey said Meta is poised to lead the pack.
“[W]e believe Meta’s product cycle is one of the deepest with MetaAI and Search, Llama, Agents, and AI engagement and monetization opportunities,” the analysts said as they raised Meta’s price target from $705 to $753.
Meta’s Llama AI model has already attracted more than 500 million users across its various platforms.
4 things to watch for in 2025
Meta’s success in 2025 largely hinges on the points already raised by analysts.
Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co analyst Brian White summed it up clearly when he said Meta’s short-term success will depend on investments in new products, the incorporation of generative AI across its social media portfolio, and the expansion of its advertising business.
Against this backdrop, the things to watch for Meta this year are:
- Investments in new products
- The incorporation of generative AI
- Expansion of ad revenue
- Quarterly financial statements
Investments in new products
Meta has introduced several products intended to cement its position in emerging technologies like the metaverse, augmented reality, and AI.
In October, the company launched the Meta Quest 3S, an affordable headset that enhances users’ virtual reality experience. One month earlier, the company unveiled its augmented reality glasses for truly immersive experiences.
Meta also plans to improve its Ray-Ban smart glasses by incorporating an AI virtual assistant, which should improve the wearable technology’s functionality. The new features are expected to launch later this year.
Although these technologies are still in development, analysts say they’re on the cusp of becoming major industries.
According to some projections, the market for metaverse technology will be worth $1.3 trillion by 2030, while the global augmented reality market could reach nearly $600 billion over that period.
The incorporation of generative AI
There’s a reason why Meta is investing so heavily in artificial intelligence—it intends to strengthen its generative AI capabilities across its platforms.
The Meta AI virtual assistant is a chat feature designed to answer questions and generate images based on users’ prompts. It can also be used to edit photos, create animations from generated images, and create backgrounds for Instagram stories.
Meta also offers generative advertising, giving businesses the AI tools to automate their digital advertisements across social media platforms.
During the company’s third-quarter earnings report, Zuckerberg said Meta AI was nearing 500 million monthly active users.
“More than a million advertisers used our [AI] tools to create more than 15 million ads in the last month, and we estimate that businesses using Image Generation are seeing a 7% increase in conversions—and there’s more upside here,” Zuckerberg said in October.
Expansion of ad revenue
With advertising accounting for the vast majority of Meta’s revenue, the company continues to explore new ways of maximizing its ad space.
As Zuckerberg noted, generative AI has given advertisers more ways to reach their intended audiences. The widespread use of Meta’s generative AI features has allowed businesses to create more personalized and effective ad campaigns.
Meta is also expanding the locations of ad placements across its platforms. In addition to News Feeds, Stories, and Reels, ads are now being incorporated into additional spaces across Facebook and Instagram.
This has come with a broadening of special ad categories targeting financial products and services, giving more businesses the opportunity to reach their audiences.
These tweaks have already paid off, as evidenced by Meta’s booming ad revenue in recent quarters.
Quarterly financial statements
If all goes according to plan, Meta’s strategic investments, use of artificial intelligence, and expanding ad capabilities should translate into higher sales in 2025.
After such a strong 2024, investors will be looking closely to see if Meta can replicate its explosive ad revenue growth again this year. As a reminder, Meta reported ad revenue of $39.9 billion in the third quarter, a 19% increase compared to a year earlier.
On the user side of the social media business, investors are always interested in Meta’s daily active user count. In the third quarter, the company reported 3.29 billion daily active users across its social media platforms and apps. Further growth is expected this year.
Zuckerberg has already hinted at plans to invest heavily in AI and other emerging technologies, but investors will see how far that goes in 2025.
The company’s capital expenditures were promised to hit between $35 billion and $40 billion in 2024, with expectations of significant growth this year.