Meta Stock Jumps More Than 2% Friday as Buy Rating and New Qualcomm Chip Deal Boost Investor Confidence

Shares of Meta Platforms climbed Friday, rising 2.34%, or $12.72, to $555.58 in midday trading, as a fresh analyst endorsement and a newly disclosed chip-supply partnership with Qualcomm helped reverse some of the social media giant's recent losses.

The gain comes after a difficult stretch for Meta stock, which has fallen sharply from its highs over the past year even as the broader company continues to post strong revenue growth tied to its advertising business.

A stock well off its highs

Friday's bounce remains modest set against the backdrop of Meta's performance over the past 12 months. Meta shares hit a 52-week high of $796.25 and a 52-week low of $520.26 over the past year. At Friday's price near $556, the stock remains far closer to that low than to its peak, reflecting a broader pullback in megacap technology valuations that has weighed on Meta alongside its industry peers.

A fresh vote of confidence from Wall Street

Part of Friday's strength traces back to a reaffirmed bullish call from a closely watched analyst. Piper Sandler analyst Thomas Champion reiterated a Buy rating on Meta on June 25, maintaining an $800 price target that implies roughly 16% upside from recent trading levels.

That vote of confidence joins a broader set of Wall Street price targets that remain well above where the stock currently trades. Meta Platforms carries a consensus price target of $834.43 based on the ratings of 37 analysts, with the most recent ratings coming from RBC Capital, Rosenblatt and Wells Fargo, whose average target of $863.33 implies roughly 58% upside from recent levels.

Not every analyst has remained equally optimistic in recent months, however. JP Morgan cut its price target on Meta from $825 to $725 on April 30, 2026, marking the most recent downgrade tracked among major Wall Street firms.

A new chip deal with Qualcomm

Beyond the analyst commentary, Friday's gains followed a notable infrastructure announcement from one of the chip industry's biggest names. Qualcomm used its investor day this week to unveil a new line of data center processors, along with a multi-year agreement to supply Meta with central processing units for its next-generation server fleet.

The centerpiece of that deal is a newly introduced chip aimed squarely at the kind of AI workloads Meta and other large technology companies are racing to support. Qualcomm introduced the Dragonfly C1000 CPU, a chiplet-design processor featuring more than 250 cores, with commercial availability expected in 2028. The chip is designed with frequencies exceeding 5 GHz and supports PCIe Gen 7 connectivity, as Qualcomm seeks to diversify beyond its core mobile chipset business.

Qualcomm's chief executive framed the agreement as part of a larger strategic push into AI infrastructure. Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm, said the company is "well positioned" for the shift toward AI inference workloads in the data center, citing multi-year agreements with leading customers.

A cautious response from Meta itself

While the Qualcomm announcement generated significant attention across the chip sector, Meta's own public response to the deal has been notably measured. The company has declined to detail specifics about timing or how the new chips will fit into its broader infrastructure strategy. A Meta spokesperson told Data Center Knowledge that the company is "embracing a flexible, portfolio-based approach, combining hardware from a range of partners with our own rapidly advancing MTIA silicon program."

That statement suggests Qualcomm's chips will represent one piece of a broader hardware strategy for Meta rather than a wholesale shift away from the company's in-house silicon efforts. Industry analysts have also cautioned against reading too much into the deal's near-term significance. Matt Kimball, vice president and principal analyst for data center technologies at Moor Insights & Strategy, told Data Center Knowledge, "One customer win doesn't change the server CPU market overnight."

The broader advertising business remains the bigger story

Beneath the headline-grabbing AI infrastructure deals, Meta's underlying business has continued to show strength, particularly in its core advertising operations. Meta's most recent quarterly revenue grew 33% year-over-year to $56.31 billion, with ad impressions up 19% and average price per ad up 12% simultaneously — an unusual combination given that greater inventory supply typically compresses unit pricing, suggesting AI-driven targeting improvements are sustaining strong advertiser returns.

Other analysts following the stock have echoed that optimism around Meta's advertising momentum. Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney reiterated a Buy rating on Meta on June 17, keeping a $930 price target and citing the company's expanding subscription strategy alongside strong ad momentum.

A volatile year for the stock

Friday's gain comes after a choppy stretch of trading for Meta in recent weeks. Options market data from Cboe showed mixed sentiment in Meta shares as recently as Wednesday, when the stock was down 0.8% on the day, following a separate session in which shares fell 0.26%.

That recent softness followed a sharp pullback from Meta's spring highs. Piper Sandler has separately noted that Meta shares delivered only mid-single-digit returns over the trailing year while experiencing valuation multiple compression of roughly 10%, even as the firm's advertising buyer survey pointed to accelerating market growth heading into 2026.

What's driving sentiment more broadly

Friday's rebound in Meta shares also appears tied to a broader improvement in sentiment toward technology stocks more generally. Market commentary pointed to renewed enthusiasm tied to digital advertising demand, alongside spillover excitement from Qualcomm's own surge following its data center announcements. Qualcomm shares jumped 15% in extended trading after the company unveiled its multigenerational CPU deal with Meta, introduced a new AI inference architecture, and nearly doubled its non-handset revenue forecast for fiscal 2029.

Looking ahead

With Meta's stock still trading well below the consensus analyst price target and roughly 30% off its 52-week high, investors appear to be weighing the company's continued advertising strength and emerging infrastructure partnerships against broader uncertainty about technology valuations following a volatile stretch across the sector. Whether Friday's gains mark the start of a sustained recovery or another temporary bounce within a wider trading range will likely depend on how Meta's advertising business performs in the months ahead, and on how investors continue to price the company's enormous spending on AI infrastructure relative to its returns.