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Investing.com -- Wedbush on Thursday added Meta Platforms to its Best Ideas list, saying investor sentiment has improved following the company’s third-quarter results. The brokerage kept its $920 price target.
Wedbush analysts said caution had built around Meta’s expense and capex outlook, but argued the spending “has been justified,” highlighting the infusion of AI capabilities across its advertising systems and content recommendation engines.
They pointed to signs of healthy underlying demand in the core business and management’s commitment to long-term strategic goals.
Analysts said they were encouraged by “robust growth in Meta’s core advertising business,” positive commentary on Meta AI and Superintelligence Labs, and momentum from new AI-driven hardware launches.
The broker noted that shares trade at about 19 times its 2027 GAAP EPS estimate, a modest discount to Alphabet. “We think the risk/reward is compelling with limited downside from here following the recent pullback in shares,” Wedbush said.
The firm’s Best Ideas list features several large-cap technology and cybersecurity names, including Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, Palo Alto Networks, IBM, Check Point Software Technologies, and Western Digital.
Other inclusions span software, biotech and semiconductors such as arGEN-X, Pegasystems, and Silicon Motion Technology Corp.
Meta closed October with Q3 results that showed revenue rising 26% in the third quarter, ahead of expectations, though operating costs climbed even faster at 32%. The company warned that capital spending will be “notably larger” next year as it accelerates AI investments and expands its data-center footprint.
Its quarterly profit was hit by a roughly $16 billion one-off charge tied to U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Without that item, net income would have been $18.64 billion instead of the reported $2.71 billion.
After moving more slowly than peers, Meta has intensified its AI push with a stated ambition of reaching superintelligence, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to new mega–data centers and preparing for even heavier spending to support future compute demands.
For this year, the company raised the lower end of its capex range to $70 billion–$72 billion from $66 billion–$72 billion. It projected fourth-quarter revenue of $56 billion to $59 billion, compared with the $57.25 billion analyst consensus from LSEG.