Meta Platforms Stock Is Rallying Thursday: What's Going On?

Meta Platforms Inc META shares are trading higher Thursday after the company reported strong second-quarter financial results and issued guidance above estimates. Several analysts also raised price targets on the stock following the print.

• Q2 Revenue: $39.07 billion, versus estimates of $38.31 billion

• Q2 EPS: $5.16, versus estimates of $4.73

Total revenues jumped 22% on a year-over-year basis as Meta delivered its sixth consecutive quarterly beat, according to Benzinga Pro.

Family daily active people were up 7% year-over-year to 3.27 billion. Ad impressions and average price per ad both jumped 10% year-over-year.

Capital expenditures totaled $8.47 billion. The company ended the quarter with $58.08 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.

"We had a strong quarter, and Meta AI is on track to be the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year," said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta. "We've released the first frontier-level open source AI model, we continue to see good traction with our Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, and we're driving good growth across our apps."

Guidance: Meta expects third-quarter revenue to be in the range of $38.5 billion to $41 billion versus estimates of $38.31 billion.

Meta still expects full-year 2024 total expenses to be in the range of $96 billion to $99 billion. The company expects full-year 2024 capital expenditures to be in the range of $37 billion to $40 billion, versus its prior guidance range of $35 billion to $40 billion.

See Also: Boeing’s Q2 Earnings: Huge Revenue Decline, Lower Deliveries, Names Former Aerospace Industries Association Chair Kelly Ortberg As New CEO 

Analyst Changes:

• Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan maintained Meta with a Buy and raised the price target from $522 to $555.

• Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein maintained Meta with an Outperform and raised the price target from $525 to $615.

• BofA Securities analyst Justin Post maintained Meta with a Buy and raised the price target from $550 to $563.

• Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak maintained Meta with an Overweight and raised the price target from $550 to $575.

• Piper Sandler analyst Thomas Champion maintained Meta with an Overweight and raised the price target from $545 to $575.

• Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett maintained Meta with a Buy and raised the price target from $562 to $643.

• Jefferies analyst Brent Thill maintained Meta with a Buy and raised the price target from $565 to $600.

• Citigroup analyst Ronald Josey maintained Meta with a Buy and raised the price target from $550 to $580.

META Price Action: Meta Platforms shares were up 8.71%, trading at $516.20 at the time of publication Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: Ink Drop/Shutterstock.