{"id":261150,"date":"2026-01-28T03:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/261150\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T03:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:35:11","slug":"wall-street-thinks-this-ai-stock-is-the-next-big-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/261150\/","title":{"rendered":"Wall Street Thinks This AI Stock Is the Next Big Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While AI chip stocks continue to garner outsize attention, smart analysts are looking elsewhere for growth.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/t\/trillion-dollar-club\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">trillion-dollar club<\/a> only had three members: Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet. Since OpenAI released ChatGPT to the world and forever changed the technology landscape, several more companies have achieved trillion-dollar status.<\/p>\n<p>While semiconductor stocks have become some of the most influential contributors to the AI boom, Wall Street has its eyes on another platform as the next big opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s dig into how Meta Platforms (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/quote\/nasdaq\/meta\/\" class=\"font-bold hover:underline\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">META<\/a> +0.09%) is quietly leading the AI supercycle and assess why the company is poised to continue disrupting its big tech counterparts.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Meta Platforms logo on a phone screen.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"880\" height=\"552\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"h-auto max-w-full rounded object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769571310_205_.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Image source: Getty Images.<\/p>\n<p>How is Meta deploying AI?<\/p>\n<p>Meta&#8217;s peers have ambitious AI road maps &#8212; promising to revolutionize society through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/2026\/01\/23\/did-nvidia-just-say-checkmate-to-tesla\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">autonomous systems<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/2026\/01\/22\/silicon-valley-legend-jason-calacanis-just-said-no\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">humanoid robots<\/a>. While the upside from these moonshots is enormous, physical AI applications remain years &#8212; if not decades &#8212; away from commercial deployment if they are successful at all.<\/p>\n<p>Meta is taking a drastically different approach. The company has one of the clearest ways to showcase how AI is already making a positive impact on its business. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/2025\/12\/31\/1-artificial-intelligence-ai-revenue-machine-youll\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Meta Advantage+<\/a> is redefining how companies and consumers interact with digital ads.<\/p>\n<p>While this might sound a little mundane, Meta&#8217;s results since launching this product are so good they are almost impossible to believe.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Meta Platforms Stock Quote\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"w-full flex-none object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769571311_284_.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s Change<\/p>\n<p>(0.09%) $0.61<\/p>\n<p>Current Price<\/p>\n<p>$672.97<\/p>\n<p>Key Data Points<\/p>\n<p>Market Cap<\/p>\n<p>$1.7T<\/p>\n<p>Day&#8217;s Range<\/p>\n<p>$664.66 &#8211; $676.82<\/p>\n<p>52wk Range<\/p>\n<p>$479.80 &#8211; $796.25<\/p>\n<p>Volume<\/p>\n<p>13M<\/p>\n<p>Avg Vol<\/p>\n<p>19M<\/p>\n<p>Gross Margin<\/p>\n<p>82.00%<\/p>\n<p>Dividend Yield<\/p>\n<p>0.31%<\/p>\n<p>Why is Meta Advantage+ such a game changer?<\/p>\n<p>The biggest challenge for advertisers is accurately analyzing which types of campaigns different <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/d\/demographics\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">consumer demographics<\/a> engage with and the frequency with which they respond. Meta Advantage+ is taking much of the guesswork out of this equation &#8212; removing the friction that stands in the way between brands and customers.<\/p>\n<p>At its core, Advantage+ is a suite of models that use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/m\/machine-learning\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">machine learning<\/a> to create, test, target, and price ads across Meta&#8217;s social media properties.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the automation and efficiency Advantage+ brings to the table, Meta&#8217;s partners are able to realize higher conversion rates on ad campaigns &#8212; thereby improving their return on investment compared to the old style of manually creating and targeting an ad.<\/p>\n<p>This is important for two main reasons. First, the value proposition of Advantage+ should yield higher stickiness from Meta&#8217;s advertising customers &#8212; making the idea of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/s\/switching-costs\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">switching to a competing platform<\/a> out of the question.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, as Advantage+ grows, Meta will be able to command more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/p\/pricing-power\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pricing power<\/a> for this service &#8212; ultimately leading to further revenue acceleration, widening profit margins, and robust free cash flow.<\/p>\n<p>What is Wall Street saying about Meta stock?<\/p>\n<p>Among the 67 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/s\/what-is-a-sell-side-analyst\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sell-side analysts<\/a> who cover Meta stock, 60 of them rate the stock either a buy or strong buy. The average price target for Meta stock is $833 &#8212; implying 25% upside from current levels as of Jan. 23.<\/p>\n<p>Meta currently trades at a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/f\/forward-pe\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">forward price-to-earnings<\/a> (P\/E) multiple of just 22 &#8212; the lowest among the &#8220;Magnificent Seven.&#8221; The reason for this disparity is simple: As Meta continues to accelerate its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/c\/capital-expenditure\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">capital expenditures<\/a> (capex), investors remain wary about management&#8217;s ability to strategically allocate capital given some hiccups with Mark Zuckerberg&#8217;s metaverse obsession from a few years ago. Spoiler alert: It flopped.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\/companies\/META\/chart\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><img alt=\"META PE Ratio (Forward) Chart\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"720\" height=\"541\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"h-auto max-w-full rounded object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent;max-width:720px\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/78e232306c1ed3a27aaddc49a500cc3c.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\/companies\/META\/forward_pe_ratio\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">META PE Ratio (Forward)<\/a> data by <a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">YCharts<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the big picture: Advantage+ is already operating at a $60 billion annual revenue <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/r\/run-rate\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">run rate<\/a> since it launched three years ago. Few developers and infrastructure spenders can reference a similar growth trajectory directly tied to AI.<\/p>\n<p>In my eyes, Wall Street is right to be so bullish on Meta stock.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/author\/20479\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Spatacco<\/a> has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/legal\/fool-disclosure-policy\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While AI chip stocks continue to garner outsize attention, smart analysts are looking elsewhere for growth. Prior to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,343,344,85,46,125],"class_list":["post-261150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}