What happened
Meta Platforms (META -10.56%), a stock that has done rather well so far this year, had another good trading session on Thursday. The social media giant's share price inched 1.4% higher, slightly outpacing the S&P 500 index's 0.9% gain. While there was no market-shaking news from the company itself, it was the subject of a new, positive analyst note.
So what
That note was authored by RBC Capital's Brad Erickson, who reaffirmed his outperform (buy) recommendation on Meta Platforms stock, and his $285 per share price target. That's a healthy 13% above the current price level.
Erickson's move is due to his new take on the social media company's advertising formats, which late last year saw a revamp. The analyst said he and his team did a deep dive into the latest offerings, including click-to-message and business messaging.
As a result, Erickson wrote, "we're bullish on new ad formats widening META's structural moat in social given all aim to generally enable direct attribution from ads to actions." He added that, for him, Meta Platforms is still a favorite stock among internet titles.
Now what
While investors should never trade a stock solely based on an analyst's recommendation, Erickson does have plenty of justification in his latest Meta Platforms take.
The company is heavily dependent on the cutting-edge, highly targeted ad technology it offers clients. Assuming Erickson's evaluation of the new systems is accurate and realistic, it's very encouraging that Meta Platforms keeps innovating in order to stay competitive in a world full of social media sites.
