Is Meta uninvestable or a top pick? Pros weigh in on whether it's time to buy

Published Mon, Sep 25 20238:21 PM EDT

Amala Balakrishner @in/amala-balakrishner @_amalabk

Tech giant Meta seems to be going through an "identity crisis" of sorts, making the stock "uninvestable" right now, according to Adam Coons, chief portfolio manager at Winthrop Capital Management. The company — which operates social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp – has been through multiple rounds of restructuring, making it hard for investors to "understand what [it] is going to be," he told CNBC's " Street Signs Asia " on Monday. The tech player had previously said it was centered on the metaverse , but has since announced a renewed focus on leveraging artificial intelligence. Reports indicate that it has plans to roll out a generative AI-powered chatbot with multiple personas that will rival ChatGPT. "We're having a hard time understanding the overall spin. Even though [Meta] did cut back quite a bit, the overall spend is quite high towards this metaverse that they're trying to launch and that has even started to get a little cloudy," Coons said. "We're questioning — and it seems like even they're questioning — what the business model is ultimately going to be. So, for us, it is not a name we're investing in. I'll be okay with being wrong on [this] just because the up and down skew is just too high," he added. 'Top pick' Year-to-date, Meta shares are up almost 150%. META mountain 2022-09-25 Meta price chart American investment bank Citi has named Meta as its "top-pick across the internet sector," giving it a buy rating at a price target of $385 — giving it over 30% upside from its Sept. 21 close. "Meta is taking share of the broader online advertising market," Citi's analysts wrote in a Sept. 22 note, citing new ad units and greater demand from advertisers as among the reasons why. Elsewhere, Baird Equity Research has an outperform rating on Meta at a target price of $355, giving it an around 18% upside from its Sept. 22 close. "We continue to like the stock [because of its] accelerating revenues and margins into 2024," the analysts wrote in a Sept. 20 note. They expect the tech player to benefit substantially from the "large white space within the virtual reality market," given its immersive Quest headsets. So far, over 20 million units of its Meta Quest 2 have been sold since its launch in late 2020, generating what the Baird team estimates to be around 70% of the revenue earned by Reality Labs – Meta's business research unit. The analysts expect Meta's Quest 3 — which has an "entry-level" price point of $499, compared to Apple Vision Pro's $3,499 price tag — to have higher sales numbers given the need for "greater computing power" to play larger and more complex games. However, even given Meta's new launches and opportunities in ad revenue, Winthrop Capital's Coons is skeptical of how long this will go on "until Mark Zuckerberg changes his mind." "[Meta] is firing on all cylinders right now, I won't deny that. But we just haven't seen enough evidence for us to want to hop back [and say] it is doing well. We just need more proof," he added. — CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.