Meta is building a new $20B business, Truist says

Meta Platforms META is positioning itself for further upside as it taps a new subscription-based revenue stream, Truist analysts led by Youssef Squali told clients in their latest research note.

Squali maintains a “buy” rating on the tech behemoth, with an $840 price target indicating potential upside of more than 40% from current levels.

“We remain constructive on META as the company continues to outgrow the digital ad while also diversifying into new revenue streams, including subscriptions.”

Its consumer-focused subscription tiers and AI plans will prove a highly profitable sales base over the coming decade, he added.

Note that Meta stock is currently down some 10% year-to-date.

Why is Truist bullish on Meta stock

The core of Truist’s bullish outlook on META shares is the giant’s deliberate shift toward a “dual-revenue” model, which the firm sees as necessary to unlock alternative income streams.

According to Youssef Squali, the strategy actually mirrors Google’s push into subscription services via YouTube and Google One – verticals that generated over $35 billion last year.

On top of paid AI offerings, Meta Platforms is rolling out “Plus” tiers across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which offer improved personalization, engagement, and audience control features.

These new offerings, the analyst believes, may boost the company’s subscriber count by more than 360 million and become its new, high-margin $20 billion business within the next five years.

What paid subscriptions mean for META shares

Squali expects the aforementioned rollouts to eventually represent up to 5% of META’s overall top line.

He expects Instagram Plus to anchor this growth—yielding an estimated $10 billion yearly by the end of this decade—and Meta AI to follow at about $6.5 billion.

Truist’s estimates for Facebook Plus and WhatsApp Plus, meanwhile, are set at nearly $2.8 billion and $2 billion, respectively.

Meta Platforms Inc is utilizing an accessible pricing matrix, with social platform tiers ranging from $2.99 to $3.99 monthly, while its premium AI-focused plans are priced between $7.99 and $19.99.

What to expect from Meta moving forward?

META’s ability to command premium pricing is rooted in its recent technological leaps, particularly the advancement of its multimodal reasoning model, Muse Spark.

The system directly enabled the launch of “top-tier” subscriptions such as Meta OnePlus and Meta One Premium.

By offering advanced image and video generation, unlimited voice conversations, and a dedicated “Thinking Mode,” Meta is successfully targeting users willing to pay for expanded compute limits and complex agentic workflows.

Crucially, Truist’s long-term subscription thesis extends well beyond software.

Squali expects Meta to eventually bundle recurring services with its hardware portfolio, especially monetizing Meta glasses through added functionalities like expanded cloud storage and extended recording capabilities.

And a small 0.36% dividend yield makes META stock even more attractive to own, he concluded.