Vandita Jadeja
5 min read
Quick Read
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Meta (META) trades at just 16x forward earnings despite 28% revenue growth, with a viable path to $1,300 per share by 2030.
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Meta’s data center venture with BlackRock (BLK) anchors a $145 billion 2026 capital budget that is crushing near-term free cash flow.
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AI ad tools drove a 15.7% conversion uplift, and Advantage Plus hit a $75 billion annual revenue run rate, powering the bull case.
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Just released. Our analysts combed the entire stock market and named the ten best stocks to buy right now, and Meta didn’t make the cut. Enter your email to see the names that beat META. The report is free. Enter your email and see if any of your stocks made the cut.
Meta (NASDAQ:META) is spending like it is trying to buy the future. Capex of $31.1 billion in a single quarter, a full-year 2026 capital budget of $130 billion to $145 billion, and a data center venture with BlackRock (NYSE:BLK).
Yet Meta shares are actually down 2.21% year to date and off 14.03% over the past year. The site title asks whether this stock can double by 2030. That means $1,300. I think there is a path, and I want to show it to you (the buildout that gets Meta there also lifts the power, cooling, and networking suppliers we profiled in a free AI infrastructure report).
What’s Holding Meta Back Right Now
The top line looks healthy. Q2 2026 revenue grew 28% year-over-year to $60.8 billion. The problem is what is happening below revenue. Total expenses jumped 55%, dragged higher by $2.4 billion in legal-proceeding charges and $1.2 billion in severance. Operating margin compressed to 31%. Free cash flow collapsed to $784 million from $8.55 billion a year earlier.
Investors are also digesting a Q2 EPS miss of $6.18 versus $7.22 expected, which snapped a six-quarter beat streak. With a beta of 1.243, the stock swings hard on that kind of confidence hit. Wall Street is split on where it goes next. That skepticism is the setup.
Free Report, Just Released
Why Didn’t META Make The Top 10 List?
24/7 Wall St has helped investors make money for over two decades, and our top analysts just finished ranking the definitive Top 10 Stocks To Buy Now. Not the ten biggest companies. Not the ten everyone is arguing about. The ten best stocks to buy right now.
And META didn’t make the cut!
The report is free, and you can see why we think each stock is a top investment today.
Enter Your Email and See the Ten →
Wall Street Sees Upside. Our Model Sees More
The consensus target sits at $754.15, with 8 Strong Buy, 47 Buy, 7 Hold, and zero Sells. That is about as clean a bullish setup as you find on a mega-cap. Our own base case lands at $787 for a 12-month upside of 19.81%, with a bull case of $858.01 and confidence rated high at 0.9.
