Analysts at leading investment firm Mizuho are a bit more cautious on Meta Platforms, recently lowering their forecast for the stock. Overall, most Wall Street analysts remain bullish on META stock, but its increase in AI spending this year has raised concerns.
Meta earnings for Q1 2026 beat expectations on nearly every metric. Revenue climbed 33% year-over-year to $56.31 billion, net income surged 61% to $26.77 billion, and earnings per share came in at $10.44, up from $6.43 a year ago. However, despite the solid earnings, the AI spending is still a focus for investors who have lowered their forecasts, including Mizuho.
On Tuesday, top Mizuho analyst Lloyd Walmsley reiterated a Buy rating on Meta Platforms stock, but lowered his price target to $835 from $850 amid concerns about high capital spending.
Walmsley is positive on META stock and expects the company to roll out more AI products that will clarify what it plans to do with its new and improved large language model (LLM) and how it intends to monetize it eventually. Additionally, the analyst believes that it is important for Meta Platforms to clearly show its product roadmap and user adoption, and/or start controlling its costs and capex growth before it announces its Q2 results and issues third-quarter guidance, especially as it will face significantly tougher comparisons.
Also Read: Coinbase (COIN) Announces 14% Workforce Layoffs, Favoring AI
The Meta capex forecast for 2026 now sits nearly double last year’s figure, and the returns on that spending remain unproven at the time of writing. Meta stock today reflects that uncertainty, and whether Meta earnings for the rest of 2026 can justify the scale of that investment is the question the market keeps coming back to.
Despite concerns about elevated AI spending, Wall Street has a Strong Buy consensus rating on Meta Platforms stock based on 30 Buys and seven Holds.