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Wednesday's Bonus Article Meta Platforms Posted Its Fastest Growth Guide in Years—Now What?Author: Leo Miller. Posted: 2/3/2026. 
Key Points - Meta's latest earnings report swayed many investors, as shares rose by a double-digit percentage the next day.
- The company's Q1 2026 guidance implies growth that the company has not seen in years, especially when adjusting for pandemic-driven abnormalities.
- Updated price targets imply +20% upside ahead, with one particularly bullish forecast projecting +50% gains.
Overall, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) delivered a very strong Q4 2025 earnings report, beating estimates on both revenue and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) in its Jan. 28 release and showing notable underlying improvement in the business. The Magnificent Seven company's outlook was particularly striking. Despite forecasting rapidly rising spending in 2026, Meta projected that sales would increase by 30% in Q1 2026 — the company's fastest growth rate since Q3 2021. Wall Street responded: many analysts lifted their price targets after the report, reflecting higher expectations for the stock. Growth at Scale: Putting Meta's 30% Guidance in Context Meta has not produced 30% growth since Q3 2021 — more than four years ago — which helps explain why the company's guidance attracted attention. A closer look, however, makes the outlook even more impressive. The results of many companies in 2021 were amplified by a unique external factor: the COVID-19 pandemic. As the economy shut down in 2020, that year became an unusually low comparison base for many businesses, including Meta. Meta's sales rose almost 22% in 2021, a jump that was partly a rebound from 2020's weakness. Because 2021 growth was abnormally high versus the depressed 2020 base, it's useful to consider periods before the pandemic. Excluding 2020 and 2021, Meta has not achieved a 30% growth rate since Q4 2018 — roughly seven years ago. That is notable because as a company's revenue base grows, maintaining high percentage growth becomes harder: each incremental dollar represents a smaller fraction of total revenue. Achieving 30% growth in Q1 2026 would put Meta's quarterly revenue near $55 billion. When Meta posted 30% growth in Q4 2018, its revenue was just $16.9 billion. The contrast highlights how much larger Meta's business is today, and how significant it would be for the company to sustain such a pace at this scale. Meta Price Targets Rise, Most Bullish Forecast Pushed Higher The MarketBeat consensus price target for Meta shares sits near $849, implying roughly 20% upside. Looking at price-target updates after the Jan. 28 earnings report paints a slightly stronger picture: MarketBeat tracked more than 25 analysts who updated their Meta targets after the release, with all but one raising them. Among those updates the average target is $870, implying about 23% upside. While the revisions are not dramatic, they underscore that analysts have stayed generally bullish even as some investors pulled back. For context, the average of the price targets updated one week after Meta's Q3 2025 report was $857, despite the stock falling more than 10% during that period. The most conservative post-Jan. 28 update comes from Scotiabank at $700, implying roughly 1% downside versus the stock's Feb. 2 close near $706. The most bullish update comes from Rosenblatt Securities, which raised its target to $1,144 — implying nearly 62% upside. Historically Conservative Forecasts Provide Potential for Upward Revisions Meta's Q4 report helped restore investor confidence: shares rose 10.4% the following day. On Wall Street, conviction remains steady. Notably, Meta has beaten sales estimates in each of its last 14 earnings reports, a track record that supports the possibility of continued upside to consensus forecasts. That said, investors and analysts will closely monitor the company's spending plans and whether Meta can deliver on its ambitious growth projections. Execution on both revenue growth and prudent spending will determine how much further analysts' targets — and the stock — can move higher.
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