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Even the skeptics of Meta Platforms (META) founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg can probably agree on one thing: The guy and his tech company are tossing big wins on the board for investors in 2023.

First, there are the tangible items that have driven the stock up a cool 150% year to date.

The debut of Threads this month is being viewed as strong. Sign-up demand seems to be slowing from the initial excitement, but having millions of people engage with a new product when a formidable entrenched competitor is in the market — in this case, Elon Musk's Twitter — is a win in my books.

Wall Street analysts have slightly pushed up their 2024 profit estimates for Meta on expectations of Threads monetization.

Meanwhile, Meta joined forces with Microsoft this week to introduce its next-generation open-source large language model, Llama. Unlike Amazon (AMZN), Meta is right in the heart of the AI discussion.

Both new projects show Meta can still innovate on stuff that moves the financial needle today.

And this innovation is coming amid a significantly streamlined cost base for Meta. The company has fired a lot of people in the past year. This aggressive cost-cutting, I've been told, has freed up teams to move quicker. Which is a win for innovation. For investors, lower costs and more new products are a simple equation that totals more profit flowing to the bottom line.

"Meta is the comeback story of the year as Zuckerberg has gone from a villain on the Street to now a ticker tape parade in NYC," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told me.

At the same time, there is the softer driver of Meta's stock price: the optics around Zuck himself.

A CEO that can do jiu-jitsu and strike terror in the eyes of a competitor at a conference generally plays well. If I were an investor in Meta — full disclosure: I am not — I wouldn't mind the shirtless pics of Zuck floating around online. Great that Mark is healthy, mentally strong, and ready to pummel rivals.

Has this tough guy Zuck image helped the stock price? Maybe, maybe not. But has it hurt? Probably not.

Throw all of these observations into a green smoothie, and you have a Meta poised for an upbeat earnings day on July 26.

"We expect Meta to accelerate rev growth in 2023, given the combination of easy comps (-4% year over year revenue decline in 2H22), higher engagement from AI investments (our third-party data shows total time spent on Instagram grew 28% year over year in June), and increasing advertiser return on investment and efficiency (most of our checks have indicated performance improvements to Advantage+)," wrote Jefferies analyst Brent Thill in a recent note. "Our checks indicate that ad demand continues to exceed initial 2023 forecasts and that Meta's ROI improvements are continuing to drive some incremental ad budgets to the platform."

And with all of this momentum, it seems the biggest problem for Zuck and Meta is that the Street knows all of this. Witness the moves lower in Tesla (TSLA) and Netflix (NFLX) on Thursday and we can see the bar has been raised for tech leaders this earnings season.

"Risks are high Street expectations (for 3Q upside), any change in tone on expense discipline, or potential management caution on 2024 capex given optimism on AI benefits," said Bank of America analyst Justin Post in a client note.

Thill also sees important risks to Meta's bull case, flagging unknowns around ad spending and the macro environment, expense guidance for 2024 that may come in high, and user retention that could disappoint with Threads monetization delayed. Current guidance is looking for annual revenue growth below 12.5% in the third quarter.

Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Tips on deals, mergers, activist situations, or anything else? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.

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