The company that the Metaverse was named for, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), has been laying off workers left and right. As disastrous as that is for those who lost jobs, it may be the start of something very big for the company. While Meta is only up fractionally in Wednesday afternoon trading, Jefferies analysts believe Meta’s latest moves will set off an upward climb that investors should get in on.
Jefferies, by way of analyst Brent Thill, advanced the notion that the layoffs are actually good for Meta and that investors should get in early to take advantage of the upward draft to follow. Meta has already staged one round of layoffs and may be planning another to come if previous reports are correct. Thill asserts that the savings produced by firing a whole load of people will instead be converted directly to profit.
Moreover, there are signs that the market regards the job cuts as a sign of focus. In fact, reports note that Meta is actually swinging away from the Metaverse and more toward artificial intelligence. Specifically, Meta is working on language models for artificial intelligence systems. An array of fronts, starting with search results, will likely benefit, and Meta will reap said reward accordingly.
Overall, Meta has a Moderate Buy consensus rating with 17.07% upside potential by virtue of its $216.58 average price target.
