Social media giant Meta Platforms (META) is likely to be the big winner if TikTok is banned in the U.S., says investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS).
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Brian Nowak, a five-star rated analyst at Morgan Stanley, maintained a Buy rating on META stock and raised his price target on the shares to $660 from $600 previously. The new price target comes as Meta Platforms is likely to be a clear beneficiary of a ban on TikTok in America.
Specifically, Morgan Stanley says that a TikTok ban in the U.S. could drive 1% to 9% upside to Meta Platforms’ Fiscal 2026 earnings. “Every 10% of TikTok’s U.S. time META captures would likely add $0.30 to $0.60 to EPS… depending on monetization level,” writes the bank in its assessment.
Ban Across America
The analysis from Morgan Stanley comes as the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to uphold a national security law in which service providers such as Apple (AAPL) and Alphabet (GOOGL) would be penalized for hosting the TikTok app after a January 19 deadline.
TikTok currently has 115 million monthly mobile users in the U.S., which is behind the 131 million users of Instagram, which Meta Platforms owns, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. TikTok has announced plans to immediately shutdown its popular short form video app to hundreds of millions of users in the U.S. on January 19 if the federal ban goes into effect.
META stock has gained 69% in the last 12 months.
Is META Stock a Buy?
The stock of Meta Platforms has a consensus Strong Buy rating among 44 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 40 Buy, three Hold, and one Sell recommendations issued in the past three months. The average META price target of $689.12 implies 11.28% upside from current levels.
