10 Must-Watch AI Stocks on Wall Street

2. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 260

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is one of the 10 Must-Watch AI Stocks on Wall Street. On November 19, Cantor Fitzgerald lowered the firm’s price target on the stock to $720 from $830 and kept an “Overweight” rating on the shares. The firm holds a positive outlook toward the stock but is cautious about near-term cost headwinds.

In an investor note, the firm noted how Meta guided FY26E operating expense growth to accelerate significantly vs. 2025 on the 3Q25 earnings call. This was driven by depreciation, infrastructure operating costs, and recently hired AI talent.

Meanwhile, Meta’s recent agreements with four cloud vendors (GOOGL, ORCL, CRVW, and NBIS) bring cloud computing expenses to an estimated $40B+, which is a significant increase in future commitments and may create potential headwinds for 2026.

Cantor believes that Meta will likely incur an estimated $4billion in incremental costs in FY26E, a 3 percentage points of year-over-year growth. However, analysts noted that the payments are likely tied to capacity brought online by partners.

“Admittedly, a lot of payments are likely tied to capacity brought online by partners, which introduces a layer of uncertainty and could delay expenses into the future but we expect some incremental headwinds in 2026E. As such, we currently forecast total opex of $152B (+30% y/y) for FY26E. We have lowered our FY26E EPS by 2% and our revised PT is $720 (vs $830 previously).”

Meta Platforms has been expanding its advertising capabilities and also invests heavily in artificial intelligence and the metaverse.