Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) is set to report its Q2 earnings on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. While Tactical Bulls does not jump into detailed earnings previews, one interesting view to take ahead of earnings is whether or not Wall Street analysts are raising or lowering expectations in any clear direction. The direction for Meta (or Facebook) is quite clear — Wall Street in unilaterally raising its targets based on strong advertising and A.I. expectations.

To be clear and concise, Mark Zuckerberg has probably noticed that Meta Platforms has been given one of the most positive analyst trends of all S&P 500 stocks ahead of its report. It’s like Wall Street cannot stop raising its price targets.

Tactical Bulls always warns readers that an analyst call should never be the sole reason to buy or sell a stock. And multiple upgrades and or price target hikes does not merit any guarantees that the stock will rise. Some stocks even fall due to profit taking and digesting big moves, even on good news.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was a prime example of there being no guarantees a stock has to rise despite being one of the most upgraded stocks on Wall Street ahead of earnings. The stock posted solid results, but its shares fell 5% the day after earnings and the stock fell another 3% over the following three trading days.

So, what is Wall Street really targeting for Facebook’s parent Meta Platforms? Meta has been deemed one of the top A.I. winners by Wall Street. It is also being deemed a key advertising spending winner by Wall Street as well. And the stock is up 22% YTD versus an 8% YTD gain for the S&P 500. Let’s just say, even with solid expectations in hand, Meta is likely going to need a stellar report to keep investors happy with next week’s earnings.

On July 3, Meta Platforms was upgraded to Hold from Underperform at Needham.

Meta’s stock price peaked around the $138 level in February before the rug was yanked from under the market around all the tariff scares. It bottomed closer to $500 in April, but has come screaming back. Despite peaking in late-June at almost $748 again, Meta’s stock was last seen a $713.58.

But now look at all of the price target hikes (nearly 20 of them!) that were made in the last 30 days alone despite the firms mostly already having Buy/Outperform ratings already:

BofA Securities (Buy) target raised to $775 from $765, and that was just days after hiking the target to $765 from $690

Baird (Outperform) target raised to $740 from $635

Benchmark (Buy) target raised to $800 from $640

Bernstein (Outperform) target raised to $775 from $700

Canaccord Genuity (Buy) target raised to $850 from $825

Cantor Fitzgerald (Overweight) target raised to $828 from $807

Citigroup (Buy) target raised to $803 from $690

JPMorgan (Overweight) target raised to $795 from $735

KeyBanc Capital Markets (Overweight) target raised to $800 from $655

Morgan Stanley (Overweight) target raised to $750 from $650

Piper Sandler target raised to $808 from $650

Roth Capital (Buy) target raised to $740 from $620

Scotiabank (Sector Perform) target raised to $675 from $525

Stifel (Buy) target raised to $845 from $655

TD Cowen (Buy) target raised to $800 from $700

UBS (Buy) target raised to $812 from $683

Wells Fargo (Overweight) target raised to $783 from $664