Meta Platforms rises as Citi says Instagram engagement, monetization 'improving'
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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) shares rose nearly 1.5% in pre-market trading on Tuesday as investment firm Citi said engagement and monetization on Instagram is "improving."
Analyst Ronald Josey, who has a buy rating and boosted his per-share price target to $360 from $315, noted that though Instagram's app downloads this quarter were roughly 12% below that of TikTok, it has gained greater share of users, with monthly active users up 6% year-over-year, compared to a 4% gain for TikTok. 
"Further, while overall time spent per [monthly active users] on TikTok remains ~41% higher than IG (~31 hours per user per month on TikTok vs. ~22 hours on IG) we see IG is gaining share of attention with time spent per [monthly active users] growth outpacing TikTok for a 7th consecutive month," Josey wrote in an investor note.
Josey also pointed out that Reels ad load has reached 17% quarter-to-date and 18% this month.
After attending the Cannes-Lions Festival last week, Josey said he believes the ad market is "stable-to-improving" and given Meta's (META) approach to ads, new ad products and continued engagement growth for Reels, all of this could result in greater usage on Feed, Stories, Messenger and WhatsApp.
Josey now believes advertising revenue growth in 2024 will rise 14% year-over-year, with Reels accounting for roughly $10.5B in revenue next year. 
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