Craig Hallum and BofA positive on BuzzFeed's ChatGPT adoption

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By Sam Boughedda

BuzzFeed Inc (NASDAQ:BZFD) shares surged another 28% Friday after Thursday's almost 120% jump on the news of its deal with Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) and plan to use artificial intelligence for some of its content.

Reacting to the report, analysts at Craig Hallum and BofA were positive on the news.

Craig Hallum analysts said Buzzfeed is looking to utilize AI and ChatGPT functionality as a core element of its content creation moving forward.

The analysts, who have a Buy rating on the stock, add that it could drive meaningful cost savings as the development of quizzes and editorial is completely driven by human creative today but could utilize more AI functions to streamline processes at a lower cost. As a result, even though BuzzFeed's shares climbed beyond the analyst's price target yesterday, they believe BZFD could see continued investor momentum based on the new methods of content creation.

BofA analysts said in their note to clients that the new Meta partnership is a "validator."

However, they noted that it does not appear to be a new deal, and the contract terms, which press reports indicate, are valued at close to $10 million "likely represents the entire relationship vs. incremental business opportunity."

The analysts, who have an Underperform rating and a $2 price target on the stock, said that within BuzzFeed's offerings, BZFD quizzes would appear most ripe for ChatGPT use, although "there are several other potential use cases for AI (artificial intelligence) to become a broader part of its content creation capabilities."

"We expect this AI-inspired content to gradually rollout in 2023. Longer term, if AI gains further adoption, we also see potential for AI to drive additional cost saving opportunities," added the analysts.