By Sam Boughedda
On Wednesday evening, Meta (NASDAQ:FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg announced she would be stepping down from her role after 14 years at the company.
Sandberg will remain on the company’s Board of Directors, and the company expects to appoint Javier Olivan as its new COO at that time.
Following the news, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry said in a note that the news means Meta "now enters a new phase of Exponential Innovation and Vision - the End Of Adult Supervision." Shares are an "Aggressive Buy" as a result, he added.
The controversial analyst stated that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is "energized to take META into next phase of exponential growth," through massive innovation in the metaverse, its message-first platform, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and ad tech.
"META's massive innovations will drive the Revenues and Stock Price up," wrote Chowdhry.
Elsewhere, Citi analyst Ronald Josey reiterated a Buy rating and $300 price target on the stock, following news of Sandberg's departure.
Josey wrote that the company's announcement that it will better integrate its Product and Business groups will help "improve decision making and time to market as it invests in its new Content Discovery Engine and evolves its advertising tech stack."
"While we recognize the broader ad environment is more challenged due to macro as well as continued IDFA headwinds, we look for revenue growth to re-accelerate in 2H22 as Meta slows the pace of its longer-term investments to manage profitability and we reiterate our Buy rating and $300 price target."