New York, April 27, 2026, 09:02 EDT
Meta Platforms heads into earnings week facing questions from investors: Can its ad business continue footing the bill for one of corporate America’s biggest AI expansions? Wall Street’s latest stock targets for the Facebook parent? Those now stretch above $1,000 a share in the coming years.
Meta shares last traded at $675.03, up $15.73 on the day, boosting its market cap to roughly $1.74 trillion. Investors are eyeing the company’s first-quarter results, set for release after the bell on Wednesday, April 29. The earnings call starts at 5:30 p.m. ET.
Timing is key here. Meta’s first-quarter revenue guidance sits between $53.5 billion and $56.5 billion. More striking to investors, though: Meta put its 2026 capital expenditures—spending on data centers, servers, chips, and similar assets—at $115 billion to $135 billion. That capex figure is drawing as much scrutiny on Wall Street as the revenue line.
Meta’s core is still pumping out numbers. Fourth-quarter revenue hit $59.89 billion, up 24%. Annual revenue climbed to $200.97 billion, a 22% jump. In December, family daily active people touched 3.58 billion. The ad business isn’t slouching either: impressions gained 18%, average ad prices edged up 6%. That’s a straightforward case for bulls—fundamentals are hardly in doubt.
On Sunday, Daniel Sparks, who contributes as a stock market analyst at The Motley Fool, floated a “reasonable five-year scenario” that would see Meta’s stock hit $1,250. Sparks figures earnings per share could climb 15% to 18% each year, with the market assigning Meta about a 20-times earnings multiple—AI investments or not. The Motley Fool
TIKR’s take wasn’t as aggressive, though it stayed firmly in the bull camp. Their model slapped a $1,070.73 target on Meta—good for 58.6% upside over 2.7 years—anchored on 19.9% annual revenue growth, a 35.2% operating margin, and an exit multiple of 22.3 times earnings.
This isn’t just another retail-stock argument. In a Seeking Alpha note last week, KM Capital backed Meta, pointing to AI-powered monetization and a valuation it says leaves the stock trading about 20% under what it’s really worth—hence, their “Strong Buy” call. But they also highlighted regulatory hurdles and potential capital-spending shocks, which remain central to the current debate. Seeking Alpha
The broader landscape isn’t much friendlier. Melissa Otto at S&P Global flagged that consensus now calls for big cloud and internet “hyperscalers” to spend nearly $622 billion on capital projects by 2026—a jump of almost $250 billion. Looking at Meta’s first quarter, Visible Alpha consensus tallied by S&P Global sees revenue at $55.5 billion, operating profit at $19.4 billion, and a projected $5 billion loss for Reality Labs. SP Global
Meta wasted little time lining up extra AI muscle. On Friday, the company announced plans to tap into tens of millions of Amazon Web Services Graviton cores for what it’s calling “agentic AI”—AI that reasons, plans, and handles tasks with less human oversight. Santosh Janardhan, who runs infrastructure at Meta, described broadening its compute portfolio as a “strategic imperative.” About Facebook
Meta continues efforts to cut back on dependence on external chipmakers. Earlier this month, it announced a broadened Broadcom partnership—this time co-developing several generations of MTIA chips, Meta’s own AI accelerators built for both training and inference. The initial deal tops 1 gigawatt in commitment.
Here’s the problem: the spending might hit the books before any real payoff lands. Big capex outlays can weigh on free cash flow and earnings, especially if AI-driven gains in ad pricing, engagement, or new revenue streams lag. Meta is also still under the microscope from regulators in both the U.S. and Europe over youth-related concerns. Losses from Reality Labs haven’t let up, either.
So Wednesday’s report boils down to one thing: a tightrope for Meta. Investors aren’t asking for proof that every AI initiative pays off—they’re watching for signs that Meta can pull off ad growth, keep expenses in check, and ramp up infrastructure spending, all without letting margins slip on what’s been one of the market’s top cash generators.
