Social media operator Meta Platforms (META) is seeing its stock slip on Friday alongside an update to a lawsuit against subsidiary Facebook. The U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal made by Facebook to overturn the ruling of a lower court. Its decision was that the case shouldn’t have been appealed, leaving Facebook to deal with the lower ruling.
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The crux of this lawsuit surrounds the ability of shareholders to file a class action lawsuit against Facebook. This is related to the sharing of Facebook’s user data with Cambridge Analytica, a data breach in 2015, and how the social media company disclosed those risks. With the appeal dismissed, Amalgamated Bank can move forward with its lawsuit against Facebook, which seeks monetary damages.
How This Affects META Stock
News of Facebook’s appeal being thrown out appears to be having a negative effect on META stock. Meta Platforms shares are down 1.17% as of this writing. Even so, that’s a small drop in the bucket, with META still up 59.26% year-to-date and 65.62% over the last 12 months.
It’s possible this lawsuit could continue to weigh on META stock in the future. Amalgamated Bank will push for monetary damages from Facebook, which would build on the $5.1 billion fine and $725 million privacy settlement it’s already paid in connection to these problems. It’s unclear how much more will be squeezed out of the company once the current litigation is complete.
Is META Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, the analysts’ consensus rating for Meta Platforms is Strong Buy based on 40 Buys, three Holds, and one Sell assigned over the last three months. That comes with an average price target of $661.97, a high of $811, and a low of $530. This represents a potential upside of 18.9% for META shares.
