Piper Sandler analyst Thomas Champion reiterated a Buy rating on Meta Platforms yesterday and set a price target of $800.00.
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Thomas Champion has given his Buy rating due to a combination of factors tied to Meta’s recent performance and long-term positioning. He highlights that first-quarter revenue and operating income significantly surpassed his firm’s forecasts, driven by stronger ad impression growth, better pricing, and notable engagement gains on Instagram and Facebook video. Even after stripping out a one-time tax benefit, earnings per share materially exceeded his expectations, underscoring robust underlying profitability.
Champion acknowledges that second-quarter revenue guidance came in slightly below the most optimistic investor views and that increased capital spending is likely to pressure free cash flow in the near term. However, he views these investments in data centers and computing capacity as strategically important to support Meta’s AI roadmap, including early traction from offerings like Muse Spark and Meta AI. While trimming his price target to $800 to reflect structurally higher capex, he still sees Meta as a leading large-cap growth franchise with compelling long-term upside, justifying his Overweight/Buy stance.
According to TipRanks, Champion is a 4-star analyst with an average return of 6.4% and a 51.52% success rate. Champion covers the Communication Services sector, focusing on stocks such as Meta Platforms, Alphabet Class A, and Roku.
In another report released today, Barclays also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $830.00 price target.