Meta rallies after New Street upgrade on AI efforts

Shares of Meta Platforms after moving higher after New Street upgraded its rating on the name to Buy from Neutral with an increased price target of $350. The upgrade follows Meta’s release of Llama 2 and the firm “hearing very positive feedback” on the company’s artificial intelligence efforts. Last week’s launch of Llama 2 should help continue Meta’s valuation expansion momentum, New Street told investors in a research note. In addition, with the stock down 8% over the past three trading sessions, Meta’s upcoming Q2 results on Wednesday “are (somewhat) de risked,” the firm wrote. It expects the continued ramp of Reels and growing advertiser adoption of its Advantage suite of ad products to drive outperformance relative to the digital advertising market over the near term. Meta is up 1% to $294.73 in premarket trading.