Meta Platforms, Inc. (META.US) delivered explosive quarterly results that earned widespread praise from Wall Street. Following the impressive earnings report, sell-side analysts who were already bullish on the stock rushed to raise their earnings forecasts and target prices.

Wells Fargo analyst Ken Gawrelski noted that Meta delivered "comprehensive surprises well above expectations," including higher revenue and earnings per share, along with "2026 operating expenses/capital expenditure guidance significantly exceeding expectations." He maintained an "Overweight" rating and raised his price target from $783 to $811, with a bullish scenario target of $981, citing "continued strong contributions from Reels short videos, Advantage+ advertising platform, and advertising pricing improvements" as catalysts for share price appreciation. He added: "Strong growth prospects offset investment pressures, driving modest upward revisions to investor expectations for 2026/2027 earnings per share."

Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak significantly raised his price target from $750 to $850, with a bullish scenario valuation of $1,100, believing that "AI investments will enhance user engagement and spawn new products/tools, thereby supporting superior advertising monetization and revenue growth." Nowak emphasized: "The key takeaway is that we see higher short-term (1-3 years) profitability, along with a long list of optional paths driving continued growth in core business (user engagement and/or monetization improvements, content creation tools, Meta AI, search, business agents, devices, etc.) or longer-term growth from artificial general intelligence/generative AI."

JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth raised his price target from $795 to $875, specifically noting that while the upper limit of 2025 capital expenditure guidance "remains at $72 billion, the company indicated that 2026 capital expenditure could reach approximately $100 billion to achieve the vision of 'artificial general intelligence for everyone'." Anmuth stated: "What's impressive is that despite challenges from Llama 4 model launches and significant AI team restructuring, Meta's core advertising business remained robust, with ad impression growth accelerating significantly to 11%. Additionally, we are optimistic about Meta's complete portfolio of AI business opportunities—advertising, user interaction, business messaging, MetaAI, and AI devices."

Jefferies analyst Brent Thill reminded investors to watch for: potential limitations on short-term free cash flow from 2026 capital expenditure growth, higher 2026 operating expense growth that could pressure operating margins, and higher comparison base challenges in the fourth quarter. However, he maintained a bullish stance, raising his price target from $845 to $950 with an optimistic target of $1,126, believing that "virtual reality and metaverse positioning will place Meta in an advantageous growth position for the next decade," while monetization of Messenger and WhatsApp is proceeding faster than expected, and Instagram's new features are also enhancing user engagement.