Meta Platforms reports Q2 earnings on July 29, and Wall Street is watching closely. META stock was trading around $627.52 heading into the print, down about 2.5% on the day.
Bernstein’s Mark Shmulik reiterated a Buy rating, saying the risk-reward skews positive going into the quarter. He pointed to a strong core ad business, though he flagged tougher year-over-year comparisons coming in Q3.
Shmulik expects Meta to provide updates on AI progress, including Muse Spark and new infrastructure deals. He also noted that capex is set to climb further, with 2027 capacity coming online and BOM inflation pushing spending into the $225 billion to $250 billion range.
Mizuho’s Lloyd Walmsley also kept his Outperform rating, with a price target of $835. He called Meta his top pick among online ad names, citing strong engagement and steady growth across ad surfaces.
Walmsley flagged potential updates on WhatsApp and Messenger monetization, plus more clarity on how Meta might lease out compute capacity as part of a broader AI strategy.
Wall Street consensus puts Q2 EPS at $7.19 and revenue at $60.22 billion — a 26.7% increase from the same period last year. Those numbers set a high bar, but analysts seem comfortable Meta can clear it.
The bigger story heading into earnings may not be ad revenue at all. Buzz is building that Meta will formally announce a cloud computing business at the July 29 call.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year that a cloud business is “definitely on the table.” Bloomberg later reported the company is actively building one out, and The New York Times said Meta is in talks to lease computing power to Anthropic in a deal that could be worth $10 billion over two years.
Meta has yet to confirm either report. But the logic is hard to argue with. The company plans to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion in capex this year, mostly on AI infrastructure. Right now, Meta is the only one of the four major hyperscalers — alongside Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon — without a cloud business.
Alphabet just reported 82% revenue growth to $24.8 billion in Google Cloud, with operating income more than tripling to $8.8 billion. That kind of output is hard to ignore.
Zuckerberg has said Meta gets asked about cloud services weekly. A cloud launch would give Meta a second major revenue stream and a cleaner story around its heavy infrastructure investment.
At a price-to-earnings ratio of around 24, Meta trades at a discount to most mega-cap peers. Analysts see room to run.
Across 37 analyst ratings tracked by TipRanks over the last three months, META holds a consensus Strong Buy — 32 Buys and five Holds. The average price target sits at $818.23, about 40% above current levels.
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