Meta Platforms Inc.’s stock META rose 1.8% in premarket trade Thursday, after KeyBanc raised its stock price target on the Facebook parent to $335 from $280 and reiterated an overweight rating. Analysts led by Justin Patterson said Threads, which was launched early last night, “appears to address many of Twitter’s challenges.” But that’s not the reason for the price hike, even if it could mean several billions of dollars in ad revenue in a more bullish scenario, meaning significant U.S. and international adoption. “We believe this will be an immaterial contributor near term as Meta likely focuses on adoption over monetization. Bigger picture, Meta’s core ad products are ramping (estimated 6- to 7-point acceleration in 2Q pricing), which gives us confidence to raise our 2023E and 2024E EPS to $12.81 and $16.77, respectively.” Threads, the company’s new microblogging site, had already chalked up 5 million users in its first four hours of service late Wednesday. The stock has gained 145% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 16%.
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