Meta Platforms still isn’t getting enough credit for its artificial-intelligence efforts, according to analysts at UBS. They argue the market is overlooking the consumer applications of AI for the Facebook owner.
Meta’s
(ticker: META) plans to release AI chatbots across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook should increase the amount of time users spend on the platforms, boosting advertising revenue correspondingly, according to the UBS team.
For an example of the potential, they point to Meta’s smaller rival, Snap (SNAP). The parent of social-media platform
Snapchat
said recently that more than 150 million people had sent over 10 billion messages to its My AI chatbot, which it launched in April
The UBS analysts, led by Lloyd Walmsley, calculate a chatbot could add $7.5 billion in annual revenue for Meta, if it monetized 5% of search queries on its Facebook app.
“This side of [generative AI] has not been a focus of our investor conversations and we do not think it is priced into shares,” Walmsley wrote. “We think that will likely change as the company begins to introduce more consumer product[s] leveraging GenAI and talk about it more.”
The analysts raised their target price on Meta stock to $335 from $300, and kept a Buy rating.
Meta stock is down 1% to $285.94 in early trading on Monday. The stock has already more than doubled year to date, with Wall Street analysts enthused by its AI and cost-cutting plans.
The UBS team justified chasing the stock up further on the basis of its historic price-to-earnings valuation. The new UBS target is based on a price-to-earnings multiple of 20 times, based on their projections for Meta’s earnings in 2024. They note that’s below its five-year average of 21 times.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
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