Baird believes that recent price weakness has created a good opportunity for investors to buy into Meta . The investment firm stood by its outperform rating on the “Magnificent Seven” giant, although it slightly lowered its price target to $815 from $820. Baird’s revised forecast still represents an upside ahead of 23%. Shares of Meta are up just 13% on the year — lagging the S & P 500 — having fallen 16% from their 2025 highs in August. Analyst Colin Sebastian pointed out that Meta emerged as a controversial “battleground” stock following the release of its third-quarter earnings report. META YTD mountain META YTD chart Sebastian said in the note to clients that while further near-term risks to sentiment are still present, embedded expectations seem to be in better balance versus three months ago. He encouraged investors to be “opportunistic buyers” here and pointed to catalysts such as Llama, Meta’s family of large language models. “While mixed sentiment could persist into early 2026 amid margin uncertainty, we believe the narrative can shift more constructively through the year through a possible margin-clearing event; launch of next Llama model; updates to Meta AI; ramping WhatsApp and Threads monetization, etc,” Sebastian wrote. Other catalysts include market-expanding opportunities such as next-generation wearable artificial intelligence devices. The analyst added that he remains positive on internet mega-caps in 2026. He added that Meta has a track record of successfully navigating disruptive periods, such as the transition to mobile apps and the rise of vertical video platforms.
