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Meta Stock Has Never Been Cheaper. Is It Time to Buy?

Meta Platforms (FB) Meta Platforms (FB) stock performance has been down to date. 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 identified a variety of challenges that could impact the financial performance of the company in the near future as well as changes to iOS’s iOS privacy features as well as increasing rivalry from different platforms like TikTok as well as Snap.

In the meantime, macroeconomic conditions across the United States have worsened amid the high rate of inflation of 8.3 percent, which has led to the market to take a cautious approach participants.

Then, FB stock slightly declined on June 1 after it was announced by the firm that CEO Sheryl Sandberg will step down after almost 14 years in the position. Javier Olivan, the company’s Chief Growth Officer, will assume the reins, though Sandberg’s duties will be distributed across the structure of the company as part of a brand new strategy Zuckerberg has designed to run the company more efficiently.

“I believe that Meta has reached a stage where it is sensible for our business and product groups to be more tightly connected, as opposed to having all operational and business functions arranged independently from our products,” declared Meta Platform’s chief executive officer Mark Mark Zuckerberg.

What can we expect from this social media stock in light of the current conditions and management’s plans to change the business models of its owners?

This article will analyze the most recent Meta Platforms stock market news along with its fundamentals and price movement to present possible FB stock forecasts in 2022 and even beyond.

Meta Platforms analysis of stocks: Technical perspectives and price driving factors

Meta Platform’s downturn began in September 2021. The anti-pandemic tailwind which had lifted the company’s performance began to fade because of the widespread vaccinations.

The decline increased during November and accelerated to a peak in February, following management made negative remarks regarding the future growth of the company as well. Meta Platforms reported a slight decrease in the number of Facebook’s DAU (DAU) in the fourth quarter of 2021. It marked the first time this sort of decrease had occurred for a number of years.

Shares dropped by more than 26% the day the report was published. The price hasn’t been able to rebound.

The 31st of May, Meta Platform announced that it was changing it’s ticker symbol from “META”. The new symbol will be replacing the previous ticker symbol ‘FB’ from the time of the company’s initial public listing (IPO) which took place in the year 2012. The company says: “The new ticker symbol is in line with the company’s change of branding of Facebook and Meta. Meta.”

As of June 8th the price action maintained a downtrend, and there was no indication that the stock was poised to alter course any time in the near future. Since the year began with the FB price has declined 42.3 percentage points compared to 22.8 percentage that the Nasdaq 100 index has shed over the same time.

In the meantime, the stock is trading around 50% lower than its 52-week high , and 31% lower than his 200-day average simple moving. FB technical analysis revealed that momentum was still unfavourable. Its Relative Strength Index (RSI) has been in the 48th percentile (bearish) and hasn’t changed to levels that are overbought for months. This generally indicates that interest in buying is quite low. In the meantime, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) remains in negative range.

Meta Platforms fundamental analysis: The latest earnings

On the 27th of April, Meta Platforms reported its financial results for the initial quarter of the fiscal year. In the three months that ended at the 31st of March recorded total revenue of $27.90bn which was an increase of 7% over the previous year. The majority of that was derived out of the Reality Labs unit, the metaverse-focused business unit of the company.

Concerning its operational metrics, the number of daily active users (DAP) of Meta’s Family of Apps increased 6 percent compared to the same timeframe one year ago, at 2.87bn. On the other hand Facebook’s daily active user (DAU) and its monthly active user (MAU) saw a four percent and 3% growth and a 3% increase, respectively.

Operating income was $8.52bn and reflected significant decline in the $11.38bn that the company posted in the previous year, despite higher operating losses from its Reality Labs unit. In the end, Meta’s operating profit fell to 31 percent.

In comparison to the year before the number of employees at Meta increased by 28 percent. The company currently (8 June) has 77,805 employees.

In the final quarter of this time, Facebook had no long-term debt, and its liquid reserves – comprised of cash, equivalents and marketable securities, stood at $43.89bn. The company also generated unpaid cash flow of $8.52bn which was an increase of 9 percent in comparison to the first quarter of 2021.

FB price prediction for the stock and analyst mood

The majority of analysts who were surveyed by MarketBeat at August 8, was positive. Of the 44 firms in the field of financial services that rated the stock 32 of them gave it an ‘buy’ rating and one a’strong buy rating, 10 held and one’sell’.

Analysts have set 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 12 month Meta Platforms share price forecast by analysts was $466 while the lowest was $220.

Since April of this year, many analysts have cut their price targets for the company. One interesting divergent view was from Citigroup that upgraded Meta Platforms from ‘neutral to ‘buy’ 20 April.

The upgrade was made just a few two days following the American bank released its study Metaverse and Money Unlocking the Future that addressed the potential of this emerging business.

According to Citi The market addressable of the Metaverse could range from $8trn to $13trn by 2030. The number of users could increase to 5 billion, which is 65percent of the world’s population.

In the meantime, according to Ali Mogharabi, senior equity analyst at Morningstar the departure of Meta’s COO, who has been in the job for a long time, not have any impact on the future of the company since she “surrounded her with highly skilled colleagues throughout her tenure”.

“For this reason, and the company’s moat effect source, which continues to draw advertisers to its numerous websites, this news will not alter our fair value estimate for Meta or our exceptional evaluation of the company’s capital allocation.

“We think of the disappearance of Sandberg as another sign the departure of Zuckerberg and the company’s focus on the metaverse. But, we don’t think that the Meta leadership team will forget the extent to which their advertising division has proven to be and will continue to grow. We believe this is why, Zuckerberg stressed that the company is working to integrate its different product and business groups. We believe this will allow the company to be more efficient and speedily cross-sell its services to users and advertisers and possibly accelerate the acceptance 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 have provided an optimistic long-term Meta Platforms stock outlook at the time of 8 June.

FB stock forecast 2025

Wallet Investor expected the FB future price of the stock to close in 2022 at $216.180. In the future, it predicted the stock to rise towards $255.966 at 2023’s end and reach $335.972 at the close of 2025.

While the service didn’t set price goals for 2030 the five-year Meta forecast of stocks expected it to hit $389.775 in June 2027.

GovCapital was even more positive in its FB forecasts. The company suggested that the stock could climb to $253.360 at the end of the year. $520.207 at the end of 2023. $854.200 in 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 by algorithms based upon an examination of Meta Platforms’ historical stock price performance. There is no guarantee that prices that is FB stock will be at the levels of. Your own due diligence must be conducted prior to trading the Meta Platforms stocks.

It is important to note that algorithms-based predictions could be inaccurate. Past performance does not assurance of future results. Make sure to conduct your own research before making any trades. Never trade funds that you are unable to afford losing.