MKM Partners analyst Rob Sanderson is keeping his Buy rating and $255 price target on Facebook (FB) ahead of its results next week, saying he expects revenue upside and believes that the anticipated ramp in expenses implied in the consensus for earnings may be too aggressive. The analyst also cites greater visibility on monetization and opportunities in WhatsApp and Messenger justifying a higher multiple, which he sees at a full 3-point discount relative to Google (GOOGL) in spite of Facebook's much higher rate of growth.

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists. 1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists. 1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists. 1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Welcome to "#SocialStocks," The Fly's weekly recap of Wall Street's reactions to social media stock news. UPPING PARENTAL CONTROLS: The... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Truist raised the firm's price target on Alphabet to $170 from $158 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The firm is expecting the company to report "solid" Q1 results driven by "healthy" user engagement that continues to drive more ad spending across Search and Social, helped by an ongoing recovery in pricing. Conversations with digital ad agencies suggest that the momentum seen in Q4 was sustained in Q1 across Search and YouTube, though the management's commentary for Q2 may be cautious given the macro environment, with continued emphasis on investments in Cloud and AI, the analyst tells investors in a research note.

The U.K. plans to hold talks this month with Apple (AAPL), Meta (META), Alphabet (GOOGL) and others to push a voluntary charter granting parents more control of social media use by young teens, Bloomberg's Ellen Milligan reports. According to people familiar with the matter, ministers want to launch a consultation later this month to gauge ways of limiting the potential harm to children caused by social media, and the proposed voluntary charter may involve tech firms agreeing to alert parents when their children are repeatedly looking up disturbing content. Reference Link