Meta Platforms (FB) Meta Platforms (FB) stock performance has been a bear through the first quarter of this year. The losses have nearly doubled of the tech-oriented Nasdaq 100 (US100) Index because the confidence in the company’s capability to grow after its dramatic shift to the metaverse isn’t at its peak.
Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, has highlighted a number of challenges that could impact the financial performance of the company in the near-term such as the changes to the Apple’s iOS privacy features, as well as the increasing rivalry from different platforms, such as TikTok as well as Snap.
In the meantime, macroeconomic conditions within the United States have worsened amid the high rate of inflation of 8.3 percent, which has led to an aversion to risk among market participants.
In the end, FB stock slightly declined on June 1 after Facebook announced its COO Sheryl Sandberg will step down after almost 14 years as the company’s chief. Javier Olivan, the company’s Chief Growth Officer, will assume the helm, but Sandberg’s duties will be distributed across the structure of the company in a revolutionary plan Zuckerberg came up with to manage the company more efficiently.
“I believe Meta has reached a stage where it is sensible to have our business and product groups to be more tightly interconnected, as opposed to having all of the operational and business processes arranged independently from our products,” declared Meta Platform’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Mark Zuckerberg.
What are the expectations for this social media stock in light of the current conditions and management’s plans for reshaping their business strategy?
This article will review the most recent Meta Platforms stock news , along with its fundamentals and price movement to provide possible FB stock forecasts for 2022and over the next few years.
Meta Platforms analysis of stocks: Technical perspectives and price factors
Meta Platform’s decline began in September 2021. The panademic tailwind that had boosted the company’s performance began to fade because of the massive vaccinations.
The decline increased in November , and reached its peak in February, following management made negative remarks regarding the future growth of the company in the coming months. Meta Platforms reported a slight decrease in the number of Facebook’s day-to-day active users (DAU) in the fourth quarter of 2021. It is the first occasion this sort of decrease had occurred over a long period of time.
Shares plunged over 26% the day the report was published. The price has failed to rebound.
On May 31, Meta Platform announced that it will change it’s ticker symbol from “META”. The new symbol will be replacing the existing ticker symbol, ‘FB’, since the company’s first public listing (IPO) on the market in 2012. The company says: “The new ticker symbol coincides with the company’s new branding to change its name from Facebook into Meta.”
As on June 8 the price action maintained a downtrend, and there was no indication that the stock was poised to alter course any time shortly. Since the beginning of the year in the beginning, the FB value of the stock has fallen 42.3 percentage points compared to 22.8 percent of the Nasdaq 100 index has shed in the same time.
The price of the stock has been hovering around 50% lower than the 52-week high and nearly 31% lower than his 200-day average simple moving. FB technical analysis revealed that momentum was still unfavourable. In the meantime, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently around 48 (bearish) and hasn’t changed to levels that are overbought for months. This usually indicates that interest in buying is quite moderate. It is also evident that the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is still in negative zone.
Meta Platforms’ fundamental analysis: Recent earnings
On the 27th of April, Meta Platforms reported its financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year. For the three months ending at the 31st of March posted total revenue of $27.90bn and an increase of 7% over the previous year. In the total, $695 million was derived directly from its Reality Labs unit, the metaverse-focused business unit of the company.
Regarding its operational measures, daily active users (DAP) of Meta’s Family of Apps increased 6 percent compared to the same timeframe last year, which was 2.87bn. On the other hand Facebook’s daily active user (DAU) and its monthly active user (MAU) saw a four percentage and 3% rise in both.
The operating income was $8.52bn and reflected significant decline in the $11.38bn the company earned in the previous year, despite higher operating losses from its Reality Labs unit. In the end, Meta’s operating profit fell to 31 percent.
Comparatively to last year the headcount of Meta grew by 28 percent. The company currently (8 June) has 77,805 employees.
In the final quarter of the quarter, Facebook had no long-term debt, and its liquid reserves – comprised of equivalents, cash, and marketable securities, stood at $43.89bn. The company also generated the free flow of cash of $8.52bn which was an increase of 9% in comparison to the first quarter of 2021.
FB price prediction for the stock analyst opinions
The general consensus of analysts polled by MarketBeat at August 8, was positive. Of the 44 firms in the field of financial services that rated the stock with the ‘buy’ mark and one a’strong buy rating, 10 a ‘hold and one’sell’.
Analysts put an average FB price target of $307.3 per share, which would result in a possible 57% gain over its previous final price $195.65. The most expensive twelve-month Meta Platforms share price forecast by analysts was $466 while the lowest price was $220.
Since April this year many analysts have cut their price expectations for the company. A notable divergent opinion was from Citigroup that upgraded Meta Platforms from ‘neutral to ‘buy’ on 20 April.
The upgrade was made just a few weeks after an American bank released its document Metaverse and Money Unlocking the Future that addressed the potential of this emerging sector.
According to Citi The market addressable of the Metaverse could range from $8trn to $13trn in 2030. The number of users could increase to 5 billion or 65percent of the world’s population.
In the meantime, according to Ali Mogharabi, senior equity analyst at Morningstar the departure of Meta’s long-tenured COO will not impact the prospects of the company since she “surrounded herself with talented coworkers throughout her tenure”.
“For this reason, and Meta’s network effect moat source, which continues to draw advertisers to its numerous websites, this news will not affect our $384 fair value estimate for Meta or our excellent evaluation of the company’s capital allocation.
“We consider the disappearance of Sandberg as a further sign that Zuckerberg and the firm’s emphasis on the metaverse. But, we don’t think that the Meta leadership team will forget how profitable their advertising division has proven to be and will continue to be successful. We believe this is why, Zuckerberg stressed that the company is working to integrate its product and business departments, which we believe will enable the company to be more efficient and speedily cross-sell to both users and advertisers which could lead to a faster use for its platform Horizon for both.” Mogharabi said.
Meta Platforms (FB) stock forecast The target range is 2022-2025 and beyond
Algorithm-based forecasting service provided an optimistic long-term Meta Platforms stock outlook on June 8.
Wallet Investor expected the FB future price of the stock to close in 2022 with $216.180. For the future, they predicted that the stock would rise towards $255.966 at the end of 2023 , and the FB stock forecast 2025 to be at $335.972.
While the service didn’t set price goals for 2030 the five-year Meta forecast of stocks expected it to rise to $389.775 in June 2027.
GovCapital was even more positive in its FB forecasts. The firm suggested that the stock would climb to $253.360 at the end of the year. $520.207 at the close of 2023. $854.200 in the month of December 2024 and end 2025 with $1,276.429. GovCapital had anticipated Meta stock to rise to $1,987.827 by June 2027.
The predictions were created using algorithms that are based on an examination of Meta Platforms’ historical stock price performance. There is no guarantee value that is FB stock will be at the levels of. Do your own due diligence be done prior to trading in the Meta Platforms stocks.
Be aware that predictions based on algorithms can be inaccurate. Past performance does not guarantee of future performance. Make sure to conduct your own research before making any trades. Never trade funds that you can’t afford to lose.
