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Meta Rises as Analysts Highlight Engagement and EU Secures WhatsApp AI Access Pledge

Investors are weighing outsized 2026 AI spending that knocked the shares after earnings.

Overview

  • Citizens reaffirmed a Market Outperform rating with a $900 price forecast, citing roughly 17% year-over-year growth in global time spent across Meta’s apps for seven consecutive months.
  • Meta told the European Commission it will support rival general-purpose AI chatbots on WhatsApp for 12 months through the WhatsApp Business API, a step intended to head off interim antitrust measures.
  • The company signed a multi-year AI content license with News Corp valued at up to about $50 million per year to train models and power new products.
  • Management guided 2026 capital expenditures to $115 billion–$135 billion for data centers, GPUs, and AI infrastructure, prompting near-term margin concerns.
  • Q4 advertising revenue rose 24% to about $60 billion, and analysts’ consensus 12-month price target sits near $844 with a majority of Buy ratings.