Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) Stock Price Prediction 2026 – Where It Will Be in 1 Year (December 18)

This year, one of the best performers among the Magnificent 7 was Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META). But its third-quarter earnings report raised concerns among investors about the company’s huge capital spending on artificial intelligence initiatives. Additionally, Meta says it plans to make significant budget cuts to its Reality Labs metaverse division over the next year. The stock is down 13.6% since the quarterly report was released.

Strong quarterly reports earlier this year (despite a tax charge) had lent credence to the claim that Meta would continue to outshine its competitors over the next year. The stock price hit an all-time high of $796.25 in August. Due to the recent pullback, the stock is up 4.9% year over year, underperforming the broader market. Furthermore, the near-term future of the economy is uncertain (as are the markets themselves) and Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a controversial figure. Certainly, Zuckerberg’s sudden shift into the metaverse and rebranding to MetaPlatforms raised eyebrows several years ago.

• Meta Platforms Inc.’s (NASDAQ: META) AI push has been a key driver for the company in 2025, with integrations across numerous platforms driving engagement and increasing advertising sales.

• Despite the economic cloudiness, Meta announced that its 2025 capital expenditure (capex) estimate has increased significantly, much of which will be allocated to the development and integration of AI projects.

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Now, the CEO of Meta Platforms is changing the company’s focus and following a powerful bullish trend. In this complex context with many moving parts, investors should consider the wide range of Meta stock price objectives and formulate a strategy for all possible outcomes. To help, 24/7 Wall St. did some analysis. Let’s go in.

Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room. Investors should No Rely on Meta Platforms’ Reality Labs metaverse business to drive the company’s near-term future growth. In the third quarter of 2025, Reality Labs generated $470 million in revenue, up from $370 million in the previous quarter. However, during that same period, Reality Labs posted an operating loss of $4.43 billion.

Fortunately, it seems that the CEO’s attention has been focused on a different technological field lately. In particular, Zuckerberg seems to expect AI to be the key driver of meta-platforms in the future. AI integrations across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp could provide an economic moat for meta-platforms if the new features translate into greater user engagement. WhatsApp, in particular, has seen notable growth with over 3 billion monthly users today.

Meta’s focus on AI evidently helped the company succeed in the third quarter of the year despite losses in its metaverse business. Surprisingly, Meta Platforms grew its revenue 26% year over year to $51.2 billion, beating the Wall Street consensus of $49.5 billion. Additionally, excluding a one-time tax charge, the company’s earnings per share (EPS) rose 20% to $7.25, easily beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $6.74.

There is no doubt that Zuckerberg is now fully involved in the AI ​​revolution. He envisions a future where AI will be used for “many” “social tasks.” And he thinks it’s “really compelling” that AI “gets to know you better and better.” Some journalists have expressed skepticism about an AI-infused future. However, if Meta Platforms can turn machine learning into profits, investors shouldn’t discount the growth potential of Meta stock.

Another key driver of Meta Platforms is its Threads short-form messaging platform. Of course, Threads is still playing catch-up with the popular X platform, owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Still, Threads is making progress as its number of monthly active users increased from 320 million in Q4 2024 to 350 million in Q1 2025. That’s not at the level of X, which reportedly has more than 580 million monthly active users. However, perhaps the integration of AI features can make Threads even more competitive with X in the coming quarters.

The company expects fourth-quarter 2025 revenue to range between $56 billion and $59 billion. This is expected to be primarily due to the continued strength of its advertising business, bolstered by the positive impact of AI-driven improvements in ad targeting and user engagement across its family of apps.

It is impossible to know how the economy will behave in the future. Similarly, it is not yet clear whether Meta Platforms will achieve significant returns on its AI investments. However, these unknowns will not stop analysts from publishing their predictions for Meta’s share price.

Oppenheimer and Benchmark downgraded the stock following the release of third-quarter earnings, citing increased concerns about capital spending. However, BofA Securities has reiterated its Buy rating on the stock, keeping its price target at $900 and affirming long-term confidence in Meta, citing its user base and potential AI integration opportunities. Cantor Fitzgerald also reaffirmed his positive stance by reiterating an Overweight rating and a $920 price target. He anticipates that improvements in AI execution will lead to a “change in sentiment” for the company in 2026.

The aforementioned uncertainties are reflected in the wide range of Wall Street analysts’ price targets for MetaPlatforms. The Zuckerberg-led company has a high price target of $1,117.00, a medium price target of $837.92, and a low price target of $685.00. However, the consensus recommendation of 67 analysts covering the stock remains to buy shares.

Meta Platforms raised its 2025 capital spending estimate from a range of $66 billion to $72 billion to a range of $70 billion to $72 billion. By now, you can probably guess what Meta Platforms is spending those extra billions on. If you guessed AI, you are correct. More specifically, Meta Platforms management anticipates “additional investments in data centers to support our artificial intelligence efforts, as well as an increase in the expected cost of infrastructure hardware.”

Therefore, the multi-billion dollar question is whether meta-platforms can effectively leverage their costly AI improvements. That’s hard to predict. The same goes for the state of the economy, which may not support an increase in advertising spending if macroeconomic conditions deteriorate in the remainder of this year.

The Wall St. 24/7 Target forecast is more optimistic than the median forecast and sees the stock price rising to $935.29 by the end of next year. That implies an increase of 44.0%. It is based on the company’s ability to maintain strong advertising revenues while increasing efficiency. This should boost its results despite higher capital expenditures for AI goals.

Ultimately, your price target for Meta Platforms stock should depend on whether you expect the company to take full advantage of enhanced AI features. If so, get ready for Meta Platforms stock to eventually hit new all-time highs. However, the road can be full of obstacles.

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