Meta rises as Citi opens up 90-day catalyst watch ahead of Meta Connect
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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) shares rose around 1% in pre-market trading on Friday as investment firm Citi opened up a 90-day positive catalyst watch ahead of next week's Meta Connect event. 
Analyst Ronald Josey, who reiterated his buy rating and $385 price target on the Mark Zuckerberg-led company, said the two-day event held at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, should give more detail about the company's generative artificial intelligence plans and perhaps even insight into its next quarterly results.
Last month, Morgan Stanley listed Meta Connect as one of 2023's potential catalysts for investors to better understand artificial intelligence.
Josey also pointed out that Citi's tracking is showing an expansion of ad loads, having gone from 18% in July to roughly 20% in September, with room for further expansion, as the "leading" short-form video platform, thought to be ByteDance's (BDNCE) TikTok has an ad load closer to the mid-20% range. 
"With Reels ad loads reaching 19% [quarter-to-date] vs 17% in [the second-quarter] per CITI's proprietary tracking, coupled with newer ad units, greater advertiser demand, and what it believes is an improving online advertising environment, it believes Meta is taking share of the broader online advertising market," Josey wrote in an investor note. 

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