For the last year or so, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) stock has benefitted from what one might call founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “rennianicaince.”

By rehabilitating his image from a cold and somewhat unrelatable tech billionaire to a more well-rounded and likable personality, Zuckerberg has ushered in a new image.

Nowadays, most investors don’t look at Meta as the owner of Facebook which derives its profits from data collection and platform advertising sales. Rather, investors are starting to see Meta as a tech innovator under Zuckerberg’s guidance.

This is all by design of course, with the company openly touting its Llama large language model and going all in on generative artificial intelligence for its social media apps.

Yet, Meta’s roots are still in its data empire, with the company having access to oceans of user trend data and demographic statistics.

Whether through Instagram, Threads or WhatsApp, Meta is still very much a data company. As such, is Meta’s new price range in the $500s sustainable as its shareholders enjoy a 46% gain year-to-date?

How Meta Grew Amid a Slowing U.S. Economy

At its current trajectory and a tremendous price-to-earnings ratio hovering around 25x, Meta stock still looks like a buy.

That’s impressive considering the broader uncertainty other AI and tech-driven stocks have faced, but it’s a result of an intelligent business model that focuses on driving continuous engagement.

For example, one of the metrics Meta’s press releases and earnings reports focus on the most is daily active people.

For the second quarter ending in June, the company reported a stunning 3.27 billion DAP, representing a 7% increase year-over-year. The importance of this metric is it underscores just how many people Meta’s apps reach, which further makes the company’s advertising spaces that much more attractive.

As such, it’s no surprise the company managed to raise revenue 22.1% year-over-year in the second quarter, resulting in $39.07 billion.

This surpassed analyst expectations by 1.99%, which put the stock on its most recent increase of 4% for the last week despite Monday’s tech stock selloff.

What’s Next For Meta’s Innovation?

So far, we’ve seen Meta stock grow as a result of legacy platforms growing organically.

This is particularly true in the case of WhatsApp, which has seen its free messaging and free phone call services overtake the native apps of most phones. This trend is especially common in developing countries where telecommunications networks are more expensive than wifi calling.

Yet, WhatsApp isn’t particularly new and has seen incremental improvements over the last decade since Meta acquired it.

So what’s the next level revenue driver that Meta will introduce to reach the $600 mark that many investors believe it can?

Some have speculated it could be the metaverse. Others think Meta’s AI projects will mature the fastest because of its data dominance. The likely growth driver, however, is continued horizontal expansion into new social media apps.

Is META stock a buy at $500?

As mentioned earlier, META stock’s fundamentals look exceptionally healthy for the growth it has experienced year-to-date.

That clues investors in on the fact that it might be a case of serious growth rather than a hype-based overvaluation. Moreover, its price-to-earnings ratio of 25x is both lower than the broader tech industry average and within the traditional threshold for a fair valuation.

As such, buying into META right now perhaps isn’t as risky as other tech stocks that have seen their valuations balloon from AI.

That doesn’t mean that the stock doesn’t carry risk after growing so much for the year, but then again, with the current volatility the market is experiencing because of a weakening economy, no stock is truly safe from a crash.

Thus, investors who are interested in getting in on META stock can likely do so with ease of mind that the company will continue to perform well so long as the broader economy remains steady. 

On the date of publication, Viktor Zarev did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

On the date of publication, the responsible editor did not have (either directly or indirectly) and positions in the securities mentioned in this article.