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Three Wall Street firms just raised their Meta price targets after Connect, and the reason has nothing to do with advertising. Whether Muse AI can actually deliver on projections stretching to 2031 may define the stock's next chapter.

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Three Wall Street firms raised their price targets on Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) after the company’s Connect event.

Canaccord lifted its target to $950 from $930, Piper Sandler moved to $875 from $785, and TD Cowen went to $865 from $750.

All three kept bullish ratings. Together, the raises show Wall Street growing more confident that Muse AI can become a real revenue stream outside advertising.

Ticker Company Firm Action Old Rating New Rating Old Target New Target META Meta Platforms Canaccord Price Target Raised Buy Buy $930 $950 META Meta Platforms Piper Sandler Price Target Raised Overweight Overweight $785 $875 META Meta Platforms TD Cowen Price Target Raised Buy Buy $750 $865 Why Three Firms Now See Muse as Meta’s Next Revenue Engine Canaccord pointed to adoption. Muse logged more than 2.5M downloads in its first two weeks. Distribution is also expanding across retail, glasses, Mac and a dedicated device, which gives Meta several possible ways to make money from it.

Piper Sandler’s estimates leave Muse out entirely. Even so, the firm laid out a forecast showing $44B in 2030 revenue, coming from advertising, subscriptions and take rate. It added that product launches and sharper strategic focus could drive multiple expansion.

TD Cowen raised its revenue, EBITDA and earnings estimates. The firm called the new audio glasses and AI charm device the “clearest signs to date” that Meta’s AI spending could pay off. It models Muse AI revenue rising from $55M in 2026 to $1.8B in 2027 and $27B in 2031.

Meta’s Core Business Is Funding a Massive AI Buildout Second-quarter revenue made $60.80 billion, up 27.96% year over year. Diluted EPS of $6.18 missed the $7.2214 estimate. That was the first miss after a six-consecutive-quarter streak of beats. Capex rose 82.1%, and free cash flow fell to $784 million.

Early Muse results look encouraging. After MuseSpark was integrated, the number of people using Meta AI each day rose 60%.

Stock’s Rally Raises the Bar for Muse Shares traded at $758.41, up 33.14% over the past month. The consensus target is $786.8, and the stock trades at about 22 times forward earnings. Barron’s argued that the easy gains are gone. CNBC reported that Meta has hit a standoff with Amazon over Muse, which suggests distribution may meet some resistance.

Earnings estimates have been moving the other way. Over the past 30 days, 2026 EPS estimates saw 4 upward revisions and 45 downward. The raised targets rest on long-term Muse potential, while near-term profit expectations keep falling.

What Long-Term Investors Should Weigh Before Muse Scales The new targets give retirement-focused investors more reason to believe Meta’s AI spending may eventually pay off beyond ads. Still, the forecasts from TD Cowen and Piper run years into the future. Meta’s 2026 capex guidance is $130-145 billion, and youth-related trials scheduled for 2026 may result in material losses.

Watch the next earnings report for any disclosure of Muse revenue, subscription uptake and free cash flow trends. Those numbers will show whether the analysts’ optimism holds up.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Muse’s traction is surging, fueled by Meta’s promotion of the AI app at its annual developer conference this week and strong early reviews that praised its polished design and highly capable AI model under the hood.

At the start of the week, Muse had surpassed 2.5 million downloads since its September 8 launch. Now, the app has amassed more than 3.4 million downloads, according to the most recent estimates from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

The install numbers are only current as of the firm’s Thursday estimates, which can lag behind real-world adoption.

That means they don’t even capture the full impact of the big push Muse received at this week’s Meta Connect conference, where the social network company announced a range of upcoming features for the new AI app, including video chat with the Muse avatar, support for computer use on the Mac, a dedicated email address, more partners and connectors, and plans for smart glasses integrations.

Estimates from other market intelligence firms show Muse with similarly strong traction, though their numbers vary quite a bit. Apptopia, for example, puts Muse’s total number of downloads to date at 4.3 million. (Muse is currently only available in the U.S. and Canada). It estimates that 2.6 million of those were on iOS alone.

Meanwhile, another firm, Appfigures, says it sees Muse installs at roughly 2.3 million as of Thursday, almost evenly split between iOS and Android.

Image Credits:Meta/screenshot / Sensor Tower also has visibility into daily active users for the Muse app following the Meta Connect conference. It found that figure climbed 27% on Wednesday after the event wrapped.

Before the conference, Muse was already off to a strong start. Sensor Tower said the app reached an estimated 2.8 million downloads in its first two weeks on the app stores. During that time (September 8 to September 17), the Muse app averaged 55% day-over-day growth in downloads. For comparison, ChatGPT averaged 24% day-over-day download growth in its first 10 days after launch. Download growth for Claude and Grok, meanwhile, declined during their respective launches.

On Friday, September 18, Muse climbed to the top of the U.S. App Store and has retained its ranking ever since. It also reached the top spot on the Google Play Store on September 19, and remains there today.

While much of Muse’s traction so far is organic, the app is also benefiting from the same cross-platform promotion that helped one of Meta’s latest social apps, Instagram Threads, top 500 million monthly active users. That is, Meta is marketing the app to existing Facebook and Instagram users.

Image Credits:Sensor Tower However, as Meta’s Head of Threads, Connor Hayes, recently told Business Insider, Meta’s approach to marketing Muse differs from its approach with Threads. While Threads also deals in user-generated content that Meta can match to users’ interests when running its cross-promotions, the trick with Muse is to build promotional units that can showcase something the AI agent can do for the user, based on Meta’s understanding of what would be useful or helpful to them specifically.

Sensor Tower’s data indicates that Meta rolled out house ads promoting Muse on September 9, a day after its launch. Within 10 days, Muse received the majority of house advertising promotions across Meta’s properties, ahead of promotions for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta has also begun advertising Muse on mobile ad networks and other social networks, including Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube.

By Tuesday, September 22, Muse ranked among the top 10 brands by advertising spend, Sensor Tower said.

Still, Muse’s growth can’t be chalked up to Meta’s marketing efforts alone, as ads promoting the app only account for 6% of the ad impressions from launch through September 19.

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Sarah has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined the company after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to her work as a reporter, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software.

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Prosperitas Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 11.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,802 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,446 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for 2.5% of Prosperitas Financial LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest position. Prosperitas Financial LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $7,774,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. Watchman Group Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Watchman Group Inc. now owns 5,091 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,913,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Penney Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Penney Financial LLC now owns 399 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $228,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the first quarter. Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,519 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $869,000 after buying an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. CWS Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the first quarter. CWS Financial Advisors LLC now owns 985 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $564,000 after buying an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tenzing Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the second quarter. Tenzing Financial LLC now owns 1,210 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $726,000 after buying an additional 16 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 3,240 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.06, for a total value of $2,002,514.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 6,271 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,875,854.26. This trade represents a 34.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 946 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $680.27, for a total transaction of $643,535.42. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 9,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,646,237.90. This represents a 8.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 123,333 shares of company stock worth $80,795,845. 13.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets META has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $750.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. China Renaissance cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $700.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 31st. Arete Research increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $735.00 to $806.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $890.00 to $730.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $780.12. Check Out Our Latest Report on META

Meta Platforms News Summary Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

Positive Sentiment: Muse is strengthening Meta’s AI growth narrative. Muse reportedly reached the top of Apple’s U.S. free-app rankings and recorded approximately 642,000 U.S. daily active users during its first 12 days—outpacing ChatGPT’s early adoption at a comparable stage. Analysts see potential revenue from subscriptions, advertising, commerce and business services. Meta unveils Muse Charm handheld device as AI agent’s user base grows Positive Sentiment: Meta unveiled a broader AI hardware ecosystem. The company announced the Muse Charm handheld device for a planned December launch, camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses and $1,299 Meta VR Glasses. Investors view these products as potential distribution channels for Muse and evidence that Meta is moving beyond advertising. Mark Zuckerberg debuts Meta VR Glasses and Muse Charm Positive Sentiment: Analyst price targets moved higher. JPMorgan raised its target to $920, Tigress Financial to $995, Loop Capital to $955, and Citizens JMP to $885. Several firms cited Muse’s potential to become a major consumer AI platform and a new monetization engine. Meta stock rises as analysts raise price targets Positive Sentiment: Agentic commerce could expand Meta’s revenue sources. Shopify, Instacart and other commerce partners are helping Muse facilitate transactions, potentially allowing Meta to earn fees on purchases rather than relying solely on ad impressions. Amazon blocked Meta’s AI shopping agent Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data is inconclusive. One report described a large increase in short interest but also listed total short interest at zero shares, indicating a likely data inconsistency rather than a meaningful change in bearish positioning. Negative Sentiment: Investors are questioning the cost of Meta’s AI push. Capital spending is projected to approach $145 billion, while reports point to sharply lower free cash flow. The stock’s strong recent rally also raises the risk of profit-taking and a valuation reset if monetization takes longer than expected. Meta surpassed Wall Street’s price target Negative Sentiment: Competition and privacy concerns remain. Amazon blocked Muse from accessing its marketplace, while backlash over camera-equipped glasses and broader AI privacy issues could slow adoption or increase regulatory scrutiny. Several Meta insiders also sold shares under pre-arranged trading plans. Meta Platforms Price Performance Meta Platforms stock opened at $777.59 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $613.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $612.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.29, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a current ratio of 2.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $779.82.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. The company had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $7.14 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 27.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 21st will be given a dividend of $0.5250 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.91%.

About Meta Platforms (Free Report)

Meta Platforms, Inc develops technologies that help people connect, communicate and build communities online. The company’s principal products include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Threads, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and digital communication.

Meta generates most of its business through advertising displayed across its family of apps. It also develops artificial intelligence technologies, business messaging tools and hardware and software through its Reality Labs division, including Quest virtual- and mixed-reality devices and related experiences.

The company was founded as Facebook in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and was renamed Meta Platforms in 2021 to reflect its broader focus on building the metaverse.

Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Hims & Hers Slides Nearly 7% as Legal Pressure Adds to Its Growing List of Risks Paychex Plunges, Providing the Entry Investors Have Been Waiting For The Case for Buying High-Yield General Mills Just Strengthened SanDisk’s $1,800 Breakout Turns Memory Hardware Into a Profit Story Want to see what other hedge funds are holding META? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report).

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Meta shares have risen more than 25% since announcing its new Muse AI agent, in a move set to shake up the consumer AI space. CNBC's Karen Tso looks at the biggest announcements from the week and why Wall Street is buying into its revenue roadmap.

JPMorgan, Raymond James, and BofA all raised their Meta price targets in the same week, and their reasoning has little to do with advertising. The catalyst they keep pointing to could redefine what kind of company Meta actually is.

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Three major Wall Street firms lined up behind Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) this week, all pointing to the company’s new Muse AI franchise as the catalyst that could unlock a second revenue engine beyond digital advertising.

JPMorgan’s Doug Anmuth lifted his price target to $920 from $820, Raymond James’s Josh Beck boosted his to $860 from $650, and BofA’s Justin Post reiterated a Buy rating with an $810 target.

For long-term investors, the coordinated price target raises signal that Meta stock is transitioning from an ad-cycle story to an AI platform story.

Ticker Company Firm Action Old Rating New Rating Old Target New Target META Meta Platforms JPMorgan Price target raised Overweight Overweight $820 $920 META Meta Platforms Raymond James Price target raised Strong Buy Strong Buy $650 $860 META Meta Platforms BofA Reiterated Buy Buy n/a $810 Inside the Analysts’ Bullish Case Anmuth argues Meta “continues to move towards superintelligence with Muse off to a strong start,” and sees potential to bring an “extremely capable personal agent to billions of users.”

Beck flags daily Muse downloads exceeding 300,000 and points to a scenario analysis with a $50 billion-plus mid-case for AI monetization, with advertising the most capital-efficient path.

Post echoes that view, calling Muse integration into Reality Labs hardware a potential “killer app” the segment has lacked.

Company Snapshot Behind the Upgrades Meta carries a market cap of roughly $1.88 trillion and trades at 28 times trailing earnings, with a forward multiple of 22. Second-quarter 2026 revenue reached $60.80 billion, up 27.96% year over year, though diluted EPS of $6.18 came in shy of the $7.22 consensus, weighed by $2.40 billion in legal charges and $1.18 billion in severance.

Family of Apps ad revenue rose 27% year over year, with ad impressions up 14% and average price per ad up 12%. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors AI is “accelerating every major part of our core business.”

Why the Bullish Shift Matters Now Meta stock has run hard into these upgrades, gaining 36.41% over the past month and 15.72% year to date to $762, brushing against its 52-week high of $763.90.

The average Wall Street price target sits at $761.01, with 47 Buy and 8 Strong Buy ratings versus 7 Holds, so the fresh JPMorgan and Raymond James numbers push above the current consensus.

Management guided third-quarter revenue to $61 billion to $64 billion and reaffirmed 2026 operating income above 2025, even as full-year capex was set at $130 billion to $145 billion. Meanwhile, near-term estimate revisions remain mixed: for fiscal 2026, 4 EPS revisions moved up and 45 moved down over the trailing 30 days.

What It Means for Your Portfolio For retirement-focused investors already holding Meta, the analyst upgrade wave validates the thesis that AI spend is starting to translate into monetizable products beyond infrastructure costs. That said, capex intensity, Reality Labs losses of $19.2 billion in 2025, youth-related legal trials, and EU regulatory pressure remain real overhangs.

With Meta stock near record highs and estimate revisions skewing negative in the very near term, the revised targets support a long-horizon research thesis that warrants a closer look at position exposure.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Shares of Meta are surging into the Connect conference on the back of an AI assistant that is rewriting the company's growth story, but massive capital spending and looming legal battles put the rally on a razor's edge.

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Meta (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) opened its 2026 Connect developer conference today with shares at $754.78, up 37.35% in the last month. Our 24/7 Wall St. price target is $842.43, implying 13.1% upside over 12 months.

We rate the stock buy with high confidence, driven by AI-powered ad monetization and a glasses lineup flagged as a fast-growing consumer electronics category.

24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary Metric Value Current Price $754.78 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $842.43 Upside 13.1% Recommendation BUY Confidence Level 90% A Muse-Powered Rally Into Connect Meta is having its best month in 13 years on enthusiasm around the Muse AI assistant. The stock is up 12.69% in the last week and 14.62% year to date, nearing its $758.54 52-week high as CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes the Connect stage.

Instacart signed on as a Muse partner, reinforcing the enterprise AI narrative. Q2 2026 delivered $60.8 billion in revenue, up 28%, though EPS of $6.18 missed the $7.22 consensus after $2.4 billion in legal charges and $1.2 billion in severance.

Why Bulls See a Breakout Above $880 The bull thesis rests on AI monetization. Zuckerberg said on the Q2 call that “on a dollar basis, our ads business is reporting faster year over year revenue growth than any other company’s reported ad business.”

Advantage Plus is already running at a $75 billion annual run rate, Meta AI daily interactions jumped 60% after the Muse Spark integration, and glasses sales are exceeding expectations.

Our bull scenario points to $879.67, an 18.1% return, on the assumption Connect unveils a bigger glasses lineup and enterprise Muse deals like Instacart continue to close.

What Could Go Wrong Capex is the counterweight. Meta guided 2026 spending to $130 to $145 billion, free cash flow collapsed to $784 million in Q2, and long-term debt now sits at $83.66 billion. Forbes flagged today that the new AI may not scale to justify the spend. U.S. youth-safety trials also carry material-loss risk.

Bulls counter that excluding legal and severance, Q2 operating income would have grown 9%, and that the infrastructure buildout is a moat that justifies the spend (the power, cooling, and networking suppliers riding that same buildout are the subject of a free report you can grab here). Our bear case still shows just $729.93, a manageable 2% drawdown.

How Meta Compares to Alphabet and Snap Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is the cleanest comparable on ads and AI infrastructure. It trades at a 16 P/E versus Meta’s 28, with Google Cloud growing 82% in Q2. On that comparison our Meta target looks aggressive, but Meta’s 41.44% operating margin trumps Alphabet’s 32%, justifying a premium.

Snap (NYSE:SNAP) is the AR-glasses counterpoint via its SPECS launch. Snap grew ad revenue just 9% in Q2 and remains unprofitable with a negative P/E. The gulf makes Meta’s premium look earned rather than stretched, and reinforces our buy.

Meta Price Prediction 2026-2030 The 24/7 Wall St. price target of $842.43 reflects a buy at 90% confidence. The tipping factor is Meta’s proven ability to convert AI into ad dollars faster than any peer.

The bull case strengthens if Connect delivers a credible consumer glasses roadmap and enterprise Muse traction. The thesis weakens if Q3 capex guidance climbs again or if the youth-safety trials produce a nine-figure settlement.

Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $762.57 2027 $844.89 2028 $905.80 2029 $997.24 2030 $1,063.66 These projections assume Meta continues executing on AI-driven ad monetization and glasses adoption. Meaningful upside or downside could come from enterprise Muse revenue scaling or from regulatory outcomes in the pending youth-safety trials.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

KFG Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 269.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,366 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 996 shares during the period. KFG Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $769,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Carter Financial Group INC. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 21.3% in the 2nd quarter. Carter Financial Group INC. now owns 1,384 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $779,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Greenspring Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Greenspring Advisors LLC now owns 5,411 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,048,000 after buying an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.0% during the second quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 7,190 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,050,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 18.0% in the 2nd quarter. Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,119 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,758,000 after purchasing an additional 475 shares during the period. Finally, Alamar Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 12.5% during the 2nd quarter. Alamar Capital Management LLC now owns 900 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $507,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling In other Meta Platforms news, insider Christopher Cox sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $712.76, for a total value of $28,510,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 184,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $131,515,624.16. This represents a 17.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 946 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $680.27, for a total transaction of $643,535.42. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,646,237.90. This represents a 8.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 123,333 shares of company stock valued at $80,795,845. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance Meta Platforms stock opened at $777.59 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $613.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $612.10. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $520.26 and a twelve month high of $779.82. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $7.14 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 27.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 21st will be issued a $0.5250 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.91%.

Analyst Ratings Changes Several research firms have recently commented on META. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $750.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Daiwa Securities Group decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $687.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Loop Capital raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $740.00 to $955.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $650.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Mizuho set a $750.00 price objective on Meta Platforms and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $780.12.

Read Our Latest Analysis on META

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

Positive Sentiment: Muse is strengthening Meta’s AI growth narrative. Muse reportedly reached the top of Apple’s U.S. free-app rankings and recorded approximately 642,000 U.S. daily active users during its first 12 days—outpacing ChatGPT’s early adoption at a comparable stage. Analysts see potential revenue from subscriptions, advertising, commerce and business services. Meta unveils Muse Charm handheld device as AI agent’s user base grows Positive Sentiment: Meta unveiled a broader AI hardware ecosystem. The company announced the Muse Charm handheld device for a planned December launch, camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses and $1,299 Meta VR Glasses. Investors view these products as potential distribution channels for Muse and evidence that Meta is moving beyond advertising. Mark Zuckerberg debuts Meta VR Glasses and Muse Charm Positive Sentiment: Analyst price targets moved higher. JPMorgan raised its target to $920, Tigress Financial to $995, Loop Capital to $955, and Citizens JMP to $885. Several firms cited Muse’s potential to become a major consumer AI platform and a new monetization engine. Meta stock rises as analysts raise price targets Positive Sentiment: Agentic commerce could expand Meta’s revenue sources. Shopify, Instacart and other commerce partners are helping Muse facilitate transactions, potentially allowing Meta to earn fees on purchases rather than relying solely on ad impressions. Amazon blocked Meta’s AI shopping agent Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data is inconclusive. One report described a large increase in short interest but also listed total short interest at zero shares, indicating a likely data inconsistency rather than a meaningful change in bearish positioning. Negative Sentiment: Investors are questioning the cost of Meta’s AI push. Capital spending is projected to approach $145 billion, while reports point to sharply lower free cash flow. The stock’s strong recent rally also raises the risk of profit-taking and a valuation reset if monetization takes longer than expected. Meta surpassed Wall Street’s price target Negative Sentiment: Competition and privacy concerns remain. Amazon blocked Muse from accessing its marketplace, while backlash over camera-equipped glasses and broader AI privacy issues could slow adoption or increase regulatory scrutiny. Several Meta insiders also sold shares under pre-arranged trading plans. Meta Platforms Company Profile (Free Report)

Meta Platforms, Inc develops technologies that help people connect, communicate and build communities online. The company’s principal products include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Threads, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and digital communication.

Meta generates most of its business through advertising displayed across its family of apps. It also develops artificial intelligence technologies, business messaging tools and hardware and software through its Reality Labs division, including Quest virtual- and mixed-reality devices and related experiences.

The company was founded as Facebook in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and was renamed Meta Platforms in 2021 to reflect its broader focus on building the metaverse.

See Also Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Hims & Hers Slides Nearly 7% as Legal Pressure Adds to Its Growing List of Risks Paychex Plunges, Providing the Entry Investors Have Been Waiting For The Case for Buying High-Yield General Mills Just Strengthened SanDisk’s $1,800 Breakout Turns Memory Hardware Into a Profit Story

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InTrack Investment Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 13.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,151 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 715 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.7% of InTrack Investment Management Inc’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. InTrack Investment Management Inc’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,465,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. RHL Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Advantage Trust Co acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Philadelphia Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Axiom Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Bayban raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 100.0% in the first quarter. Bayban now owns 70 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth A number of brokerages recently issued reports on META. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $800.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. President Capital raised Meta Platforms from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $660.00 to $897.00 in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $796.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $886.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $780.12.

View Our Latest Research Report on META Trending Headlines about Meta Platforms Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

Positive Sentiment: Muse is strengthening Meta’s AI growth narrative. Muse reportedly reached the top of Apple’s U.S. free-app rankings and recorded approximately 642,000 U.S. daily active users during its first 12 days—outpacing ChatGPT’s early adoption at a comparable stage. Analysts see potential revenue from subscriptions, advertising, commerce and business services. Meta unveils Muse Charm handheld device as AI agent’s user base grows Positive Sentiment: Meta unveiled a broader AI hardware ecosystem. The company announced the Muse Charm handheld device for a planned December launch, camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses and $1,299 Meta VR Glasses. Investors view these products as potential distribution channels for Muse and evidence that Meta is moving beyond advertising. Mark Zuckerberg debuts Meta VR Glasses and Muse Charm Positive Sentiment: Analyst price targets moved higher. JPMorgan raised its target to $920, Tigress Financial to $995, Loop Capital to $955, and Citizens JMP to $885. Several firms cited Muse’s potential to become a major consumer AI platform and a new monetization engine. Meta stock rises as analysts raise price targets Positive Sentiment: Agentic commerce could expand Meta’s revenue sources. Shopify, Instacart and other commerce partners are helping Muse facilitate transactions, potentially allowing Meta to earn fees on purchases rather than relying solely on ad impressions. Amazon blocked Meta’s AI shopping agent Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data is inconclusive. One report described a large increase in short interest but also listed total short interest at zero shares, indicating a likely data inconsistency rather than a meaningful change in bearish positioning. Negative Sentiment: Investors are questioning the cost of Meta’s AI push. Capital spending is projected to approach $145 billion, while reports point to sharply lower free cash flow. The stock’s strong recent rally also raises the risk of profit-taking and a valuation reset if monetization takes longer than expected. Meta surpassed Wall Street’s price target Negative Sentiment: Competition and privacy concerns remain. Amazon blocked Muse from accessing its marketplace, while backlash over camera-equipped glasses and broader AI privacy issues could slow adoption or increase regulatory scrutiny. Several Meta insiders also sold shares under pre-arranged trading plans. Insider Buying and Selling In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total value of $2,012,047.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 9,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,708,013.06. The trade was a 26.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $712.76, for a total transaction of $28,510,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 184,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $131,515,624.16. This represents a 17.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 123,333 shares of company stock worth $80,795,845 in the last ninety days. 13.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $777.59 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.29, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $613.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $612.10. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $520.26 and a 12 month high of $779.82.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $7.14 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 27.93 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Monday, September 21st will be paid a $0.5250 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 7.91%.

About Meta Platforms (Free Report)

Meta Platforms, Inc develops technologies that help people connect, communicate and build communities online. The company’s principal products include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Threads, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and digital communication.

Meta generates most of its business through advertising displayed across its family of apps. It also develops artificial intelligence technologies, business messaging tools and hardware and software through its Reality Labs division, including Quest virtual- and mixed-reality devices and related experiences.

The company was founded as Facebook in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and was renamed Meta Platforms in 2021 to reflect its broader focus on building the metaverse.

Further Reading Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Hims & Hers Slides Nearly 7% as Legal Pressure Adds to Its Growing List of Risks Paychex Plunges, Providing the Entry Investors Have Been Waiting For The Case for Buying High-Yield General Mills Just Strengthened SanDisk’s $1,800 Breakout Turns Memory Hardware Into a Profit Story

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Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is drawing growing attention around its consumer AI strategy as Muse strengthens the company’s push into personal AI assistants and raises comparisons with rivals including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), OpenAI and Anthropic.

LightShed Partners co-founder Rich Greenfield and Constellation Research Chairman Ray Wang see Meta building a stronger position in consumer AI by combining Muse with its massive user base, software ecosystem and growing hardware ambitions.

Greenfield Sees Muse As Meta’s AI BreakthroughGreenfield told CNBC on Thursday that Meta now has "a true right to win in AI" because success will depend on more than building the best model. He argued that Meta’s strength lies in creating the software platform that brings AI into products consumers already use every day.

Meta’s massive AI spending is starting to look less like an open-ended infrastructure bet and more like a consumer growth strategy. Greenfield said Meta now has a tangible AI product in Muse and a built-in distribution network.

He pointed to Meta’s roughly 3 billion users across WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook as a major distribution advantage. Greenfield said Muse gives investors a clearer reason for Meta’s heavy AI spending and could change how the market values that investment over the next year.

He said Meta’s massive AI investment is beginning to look more justified, arguing that "all of this spending, the massive amount of capital investment and spending, actually has a reason and a real consumer product."

LightShed also set a $925 one-year price target on Meta.

Greenfield sees Muse itself, rather than Meta’s new hardware, as the bigger opportunity. He said the company is betting on an agentic personal assistant that can work across phones, computers, glasses and other devices while learning about users and completing tasks for them.

Wang Sees AI, Hardware And Data Working TogetherWang told CNBC on Thursday that Meta has successfully combined AI, hardware and data, with Muse providing the software layer and products such as smart glasses serving as one of several possible interfaces.

He sees Meta’s 3.6 billion-user base as a major competitive moat, giving the company enormous reach if it integrates Muse across its existing platforms.

However, Wang also identified Apple as a formidable rival. He estimated Apple’s ecosystem at about 1.4 billion users and said consumers may trust Apple more than Meta when it comes to devices.

Wang also highlighted Apple’s different approach to AI, centered on more computing directly on devices rather than relying as heavily on large infrastructure investments. He said Apple’s security and device ecosystem remain important strengths even though Siri currently trails newer AI assistants.

Meta Faces OpenAI, Anthropic And AppleGreenfield said Meta does not need to prove Muse is already the best AI product. Instead, he sees an opportunity for Meta to use its distribution and consumer software expertise to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic and Apple.

He pointed to Anthropic’s rapid rise with Claude as evidence that competitive positions in AI can change quickly. Greenfield believes Muse has started moving Meta from an overlooked AI player toward a more credible consumer AI competitor.

Top ETF Exposure Invesco AI and Next Gen Software ETF (NYSE:IGPT): 8.43% Weight Natixis Loomis Sayles Focused Growth ETF (NYSE:LSGR): 8.12% Weight Invesco Nasdaq Internet ETF (NASDAQ:PNQI): 7.89% Weight Significance: Because META carries such a heavy weight in these funds, any significant inflows or outflows for these ETFs will likely force automatic buying or selling of the stock.

Meta Price ActionMETA Price Action: Meta Platforms shares were up 0.31% at $780.01 during premarket trading on Friday. The stock is trading at a new 52-week high, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Photo via Shutterstock

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Meta shares bounced back to their summer 2025 highs this week, riding a wave of investor excitement about Muse, the social media giant's AI agent, which presents an opportunity to generate revenue beyond advertising.

Meta Platforms is finally delivering the kind of stock breakout that its long-standing bulls had been waiting for.

Shares of the Facebook parent have surged 36% in September following the launch of its Muse personal AI assistant, putting the stock on track for its strongest monthly performance since July 2013.

The rally has also brought Meta close to joining the small group of companies valued at more than $2 trillion.

The turnaround has been striking.

Meta shares struggled for much of the year as investors questioned whether the company's enormous artificial intelligence spending would generate sufficient returns, while legal challenges against its social-media business added another source of uncertainty.

Less than six weeks ago, Meta was down 18% for the year following a weaker-than-expected revenue forecast in late July.

Through Aug. 18, the stock ranked among the 50 worst performers in the S&P 500.

Since then, however, Meta has gained 43%, making it the third-best performer in the benchmark, according to Bloomberg data.

The recovery initially gained momentum after Meta agreed late last month to pay as much as $18 billion to settle a social-media lawsuit, removing a significant overhang for investors.

But the bigger catalyst has been the company's new AI products, particularly Muse, and expectations that the technology could eventually create new sources of revenue.

Introduced on Sept. 8, Muse is designed as a personal AI agent capable of handling multistep tasks.

Rather than simply answering questions, the assistant can find information across accounts, fill out web forms and negotiate and complete online purchases.

Users can access Muse through its dedicated application or WhatsApp.

The rapid interest in the product has helped change the conversation around Meta's AI investments.

Muse overtook ChatGPT as the leading free iOS app in the US last Friday and recorded 730,000 downloads in roughly five days following its September 8 launch, according to Sensor Tower.

By Monday this week, the market intelligence company said Muse had surpassed 2.5 million downloads.

The app was also ahead of Anthropic’s Claude, xAI’s Grok and Meta’s existing Meta AI app on Apple’s US App Store.

Concerns that the company was spending heavily on infrastructure and technology without a clear path to monetization have increasingly been replaced by expectations that AI could strengthen Meta's existing advertising, commerce and hardware businesses.

Meta's annual Connect conference this week provided investors with another indication of how the company intends to build around Muse.

Rather than positioning the assistant as a standalone chatbot, Meta is developing a broader ecosystem in which Muse can be accessed through dedicated hardware and integrated into everyday tasks.

The company introduced Muse Charm, a small handheld device designed to provide direct access to Muse.

The device is expected to ship during the December holiday period, although Meta has not disclosed a price.

Charm is part of Meta's effort to reduce its dependence on smartphone platforms controlled by Apple and Google.

Users will be able to access Muse directly through Meta's own hardware instead of relying on AI applications running within traditional smartphone ecosystems.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described the company's broader ambition as building "personal superintelligence" — AI that understands users deeply and can be highly customized.

"It is actually quite clear personal superintelligence will not only come ⁠first; it will be much bigger and more important," Zuckerberg said at the company's conference.

"So we have shifted our focus to building the best devices for personal superintelligence," he said, adding that Muse would also soon be available across Meta's smart glasses lineup.

Meta also unveiled Meta VR Glasses, a smaller and slimmer device designed to bring capabilities associated with larger virtual-reality headsets into a more compact form factor.

The glasses will cost $1,299 and are scheduled to launch in spring 2027, adding another potential distribution channel for Muse and Meta's broader AI ambitions.

Meta is also seeking to connect Muse with the commercial activity that takes place across the internet.

At Connect, the company announced partnerships with Walmart, Best Buy, Sephora, Wayfair, Dick's Sporting Goods and Gap.

The integrations could allow users to move from asking Muse about a product or service to completing a transaction, potentially giving Meta another way to monetize AI beyond advertising.

JPMorgan analysts led by Doug Anmuth raised their price target on Meta to $920 from $820 after the event.

The bank said Muse had the potential to become "the most widely used consumer AI application since ChatGPT."

Morgan Stanley maintained an Overweight rating and a $775 price target.

The firm also suggested that Walmart's participation could encourage other major retailers and platforms to join if Muse gains meaningful traction in shopping.

Citizens raised its Meta price target to $885 from $770 while maintaining an Outperform rating, pointing to the company's increasingly AI-focused hardware ecosystem and early momentum around Muse.

KeyBanc analyst Justin Patterson raised his price target to $900 from $780, while Cantor Fitzgerald lifted its target to $860 from $680.

The broad wave of target increases has helped reinforce the view that Meta's AI strategy could eventually translate into additional monetization opportunities.

Huge AI spending remains a key riskThe sharp rally, however, comes as Meta prepares to spend unprecedented amounts on AI infrastructure.

Capital spending is expected to approach $140 billion this year, roughly double the approximately $70 billion Meta spent in 2025.

That figure is expected to rise to $197 billion next year and $215 billion in 2028.

The spending has significant implications for Meta's cash generation.

After producing $46 billion in free cash flow last year, Meta is expected to post negative free cash flow of $6.4 billion in 2026 and negative $29.2 billion in 2027.

That makes revenue and earnings growth increasingly important as the company finances its AI ambitions.

Analysts expect Meta's sales to rise 26% to $254 billion in 2026, while net income is projected to increase 33% to $80.6 billion, based on the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The growth rate is expected to moderate in 2027, however, with revenue growth slowing to 20% and net income growth to 9%.

Meta's valuation has also expanded sharply alongside the rally.

The stock trades at about 21 times expected earnings over the next 12 months, according to Bloomberg data.

While that is significantly above its June low of less than 14 times earnings, it remains around the average multiple at which the shares have traded over the past three years.

It is also slightly below the Nasdaq 100's forward earnings multiple of about 22 times.

"Right now Meta offers a below-market multiple for above-market growth, which is attractive on its own, but it also has massive scale and distribution, which are advantages that will be really hard for competitors to overwhelm," Rob Biederman, co-founder and managing partner at Asymmetric Capital Partners, said in the Bloomberg report.

Wall Street's view remains broadly positive.

More than 90% of analysts tracked by Bloomberg rate the stock a Buy, although Meta shares are now trading around the average analyst price target.

That suggests the stock's latest surge has already incorporated a significant amount of optimism about Muse and Meta's AI strategy.

The speed of Meta's recovery has also increased the risk of a pullback if the company's AI products fail to deliver evidence of sustained adoption or monetization.

Brandon Pizzurro, chief investment officer at GuideStone Funds, which oversees $29 billion in assets, said the rapid change in sentiment surrounding AI companies could leave Meta vulnerable after such a large rally.

"Sentiment on the big players seems to change as often as new AI models get released, and something like Muse gives markets the sugar rush of a new catalyst, but there's an increasingly high bar to impress investors, and rightful trepidation on whether these companies can deliver," Pizzurro said in the Bloomberg report.

For Meta, the next phase of the rally will therefore depend on whether Muse can move beyond its initial popularity.

The company now has multiple avenues to pursue that goal, from advertising and commerce to smart glasses and dedicated AI hardware.

But with capital spending set to rise dramatically, investors will increasingly look for measurable evidence that the technology is translating into engagement, revenue and cash flow.

Meta Platforms (META +4.50%) spent Wednesday and Thursday showing off hardware. At its two-day Connect event, the company introduced a refreshed lineup of artificial intelligence (AI) glasses, including a $449 third-generation Ray-Ban model, a $349 pair with no camera at all, and $1,300 virtual reality glasses due next spring.

The keynote didn't dwell on what all of that hardware costs shareholders. Reality labs, the segment housing Meta's glasses and headsets, lost $4.6 billion in the second quarter on just $431 million of revenue. And since the end of 2020, the segment's operating losses add up to more than $85 billion.

Investors don't seem too bothered. Shares are trading near $775 as of this writing, after touching a fresh 52-week high Thursday. Still, what would it take to stop the losses?

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Slowing lossesReality labs' annual operating losses have climbed every year this decade -- from $10.2 billion in 2021 to $13.7 billion the next year, then $16.1 billion, $17.7 billion, and finally $19.2 billion in 2025. But the growth of those losses has been slowing the whole way. The annual loss grew 35% in 2022, 18% in 2023, 10% in 2024, and just 8% last year. And through this year's first half, the segment lost $8.6 billion, slightly less than the $8.7 billion it lost over the same stretch of 2025.

In other words, the annual loss was still getting bigger through 2025, but barely.

The second quarter showed why. The segment's revenue rose 16% year over year, driven by strong AI glasses sales, partially offset by lower Quest headset sales. Meanwhile, its costs and expenses grew just 3% year over year -- in a quarter when Meta's total costs and expenses jumped 55%.

The tech company is spending aggressively almost everywhere else. Its hardware unit has become the exception.

Management says this is the peakThat restraint is deliberate. On the company's fourth-quarter earnings call in January, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Meta is directing most of its reality labs investment toward glasses and wearables going forward.

"I expect Reality Labs losses this year to be similar to last year, and this will likely be the peak as we start to gradually reduce our losses going forward," Zuckerberg said.

Chief financial officer Susan Li said the same on the call, guiding for reality labs operating losses "remaining similar to 2025 levels."

Guidance like that can change, of course. But two quarters in, the plan is holding. First-half losses came in a touch below last year's, and if the second half tracks the first, 2026 could be the first year since at least 2021 in which the segment's loss doesn't grow.

Could the losses disappear?Stopping the growth of the losses is one thing. Erasing them is another.

The gap is enormous: reality labs generated $2.2 billion of revenue in all of 2025 against $21.4 billion of costs and expenses. Revenue would need to grow nearly tenfold, with costs held flat, just for the segment to break even.

The glasses business, still in its early innings, is the one line moving in the right direction. Zuckerberg said in April that the number of people using Meta's AI glasses daily had tripled over the past year, calling the category one of the fastest-growing in consumer electronics history. And this week's lineup, with prices now running from $249 to $1,300, may widen the pool of buyers.

However, at $431 million of quarterly revenue, I think it could take years of growth like this before the losses shrink meaningfully.

In the meantime, the cost lands on shareholders. Over the past 12 months, reality labs has lost about $19 billion from operations.

That comes to about $7.50 per diluted share before taxes -- call it $6 per share after. With the stock priced at about 22 times the earnings analysts expect for next year, that lost profit is arguably worth more than $100 per share.

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Ultimately, what would stop these losses from growing is already happening. Making them disappear is a much longer road, requiring glasses revenue at many times today's scale.

I think that's a tolerable trade-off. Meta's apps generated about $102 billion of operating income in 2025, enough to pay for the hardware bet more than five times over. The drag wouldn't keep me away from the stock at today's valuation.

But the number to watch from here isn't the cumulative loss. It's whether 2026 comes in around $19 billion, the way management expects.

Meta Platforms (META - Free Report) shares have been red-hot as of late, seeing big gains on the recent release of Muse, Meta's personal AI assistant that can autonomously complete multi-step tasks across the web, apps, and smart glasses. It marks another major step in the AI race, with the company pushing beyond traditional chat-based assistants and deeper into agentic AI.

Shares have gained roughly 35% just in September.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Meta’s Muse ExplainedRather than simply responding to prompts, Muse is designed to complete complex, multi-step tasks on a user’s behalf. The system can operate across the web, desktop applications, and connected personal accounts, handling tasks from cross-referencing travel plans to completing e-commerce purchases.

The rollout has generated plenty of attention, particularly given the tedious tasks it can potentially take off users’ plates. Early use cases have included filing flight compensation claims and dealing with customer service calls, highlighting the broader opportunity for agentic AI to handle real-world tasks rather than simply provide information.

Meta is also extending Muse into its wearable ecosystem. Integrating the technology into its AI-powered glasses pushes the agentic opportunity even further, potentially allowing users to interact with what they see and hear in real time without needing to pull out a phone or sit behind a computer.

Still, the deeper integration naturally brings concerns. Privacy and security remain key issues given the level of access required to personal email, messaging histories, and local files, with broader questions surrounding permissions and data handling likely to remain in focus as adoption grows.

Overall, Muse reflects Meta’s continued push deeper into AI, with the company looking beyond chatbots and toward agents that can actually take action on users’ behalf. The opportunity is undoubtedly massive, though execution, privacy, and the ability to reliably automate increasingly complex tasks will remain key aspects to watch as the technology develops.

Meta shares have surged as Muse climbed the app store and Meta Connect landed, and KeyBanc's Justin Patterson raised his target to $900. His point on air is that the easy part is done.

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, but may initiate a beneficial Long position through a purchase of the stock, or the purchase of call options or similar derivatives in META over the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has long been set on owning the hardware that consumers use to access his company's apps. As he pushes to make the Muse AI agent the "centerpiece" of Meta's AI strategy, he's counting on a slew of forthcoming devices to turn his dream into reality.

At Meta's annual Connect conference, which landed a week before OpenAI's big event for developers, the company said that by the end of 2026, "there will be over 100 styles of AI glasses," and Zuckerberg on Wednesday revealed a pendant called the Muse Charm, though he didn't offer a price.

Meta was late to the generative AI game, badly trailing OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, which all have popular AI models and a host of services used by consumers and businesses. Zuckerberg is trying to make up for lost time with Muse, an app that can act as a personal assistant, responding to emails, booking travel and shopping on a user's behalf.

Investors are buying in, lifting the stock 4.5% on Thursday and more than 25% since Meta announced Muse earlier this month. They're betting that, while Zuckerberg never found a big market for virtual reality after changing his company's name to Meta five years ago and shifting its strategy to the metaverse, he's now on the right track.

"Meta Connect 2026 more explicitly attached Muse AI as a killer app fused deeply into the hardware strategy, from AR glasses and extending into Muse Charm, a dedicated keychain-like device providing rapid access to Muse," wrote analysts at Mizuho, in a report on Thursday. The firm, which recommends buying the stock, said Meta's AI advancements will continue "to drive multiple expansion in Meta shares."

The Muse Charm resembles a cross between a kid's Tamagotchi keychain and a wearable medical buzzer. Zuckerberg said Meta still needs to finalize the "finishing material" and "laying out the components" to have it ready to ship for the holidays.

As ChatGPT creator OpenAI gears up for its DevDay conference next week, anticipation has been building that Sam Altman's company may show off its long-awaited hardware product, which will reportedly be a hockey puck-like speaker.

OpenAI didn't respond to a request for comment.

In getting out ahead of OpenAI, Zuckerberg is building on the momentum of Muse, which skyrocketed to the top of Apple's App Store, eclipsing ChatGPT. Meanwhile, OpenAI and Anthropic are dealing with intensifying concerns about their market-leading AI models, as critics and company execs sound the alarm about potential harms to humanity.

Getting off AppleFor Zuckerberg, the Muse Charm is just his latest hardware endeavor as he tries to end his company's reliance on Apple for distribution. It's been a particularly sticky matter since Apple changed its privacy policy in 2021, limiting the ability for app developers to target users with adds.

Meta has found some success in smart glasses through a partnership with Ray-Ban parent EssilorLuxottica. The company said Wednesday that in the coming months it will be bringing Muse to its smart glasses, offering "hands-free access, activated by saying your agent's name."

Meta also unveiled Meta VR Glasses, which are slimmer and lighter than the older Quest-branded VR headsets, but are also more expensive, costing $1,299 when they go on sale next year. It's Meta's first VR device since 2024, when the company debuted the $299 Quest 3S.

The pendant represents an entirely new device category, but many experts say there's no clear sense of market demand given the ubiquity and capability of smartphones. Zuckerberg said it will contain a fingerprint sensor that, when activated, lets people talk to their AI agent.

"Why would I carry another device?" said Anthony Ferry, CEO of the e-commerce company Wayvia, in an interview after watching the Connect presentation. For it to be valuable, it has to be "easier than using my phone," he said, adding that, "If I still have to pull out my phone to finish the job or fix the order, it's just another thing to charge."

Anshika Jain, an analyst at Counterpoint Research, said she can see the appeal.

"Meta's Muse Charm reflects a broader shift in how consumers may interact with AI in real time, with a more convenient and simpler interface for everyday life," Jain said in an email. "At the core is the Muse AI agent, which is designed to understand context and take actions in a faster way rather than just responding to queries."

Jain said the Muse Charm could find "use cases such as asking questions, getting reminders, planning or accessing information while on the go."

In addition to proving that the sudden emergence of Muse isn't just a passing fad, Zuckerberg also has to find a workable economic model for the AI agent. Amazon blocked Meta's Muse from scanning its site to shop on behalf of customers, following similar moves against Perplexity, OpenAI and Google.

Zuckerberg said he expects that "over time we will profit by taking a small fee from transactions."

Ferry said companies will "need to look at whether this is actually growing their business," and not merely benefiting Meta's bottom line.

"If it brings you a customer you wouldn't have reached, great," Ferry said. "But if the same customer buys the same product through another channel, that isn't automatically a new sale. You have to understand what it costs and whether you're getting additional business for that money."

Ralph Schackart, an analyst at William Blair, wrote in a report Thursday that, "Meta outlined a clear monetization framework, with the company expecting to generate revenue primarily by taking a small fee on transactions completed through Muse while keeping the product free for most users."

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Meta Platforms (META +4.14%) released its Muse AI agent about two weeks ago, and it appears to have another hit on its hands. The Muse app has climbed to the top of the app store charts in recent days, ousting OpenAI's ChatGPT. That has made many Wall Street analysts optimistic that Meta's massive AI spending may be about to pay off.

People are using Muse for all sorts of activities, with Meta positioning it as a virtual personal assistant. It can book tickets, shop, and send messages on users' behalf, and Meta is offering these advanced capabilities to most users for free. Power users may need to subscribe to one of its paid tiers for $20 or $100 per month to get the most out of the AI agent platform.

Many analysts are highly focused on the value of Muse and Meta's ability to directly monetize the service. The stand-alone app's ascent on the app store charts led many analysts to upgrade Meta stock, and the wave of upbeat news pushed the price up 11% in a single day. But some may be overlooking a key reason why a highly engaged Muse AI user base could be so valuable to Meta Platforms' business.

Image source: Getty Images.

The most widely used consumer application since ChatGPT "While it is still early, we believe that Muse has the potential to become the most widely used consumer AI application since ChatGPT," J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth wrote in an investor note.

Since the app's launch on Sept. 8, it has racked up over 2.5 million downloads. That's not quite on par with ChatGPT, which had 3.1 million downloads in the same time frame, but it's close. Keep in mind, ChatGPT was the fastest-adopted consumer platform in history, gaining 100 million users within two months of its launch. Results anywhere near that would put Meta well on its way to having another billion-user app.

A high user count, however, won't necessarily mean Meta will turn a profit on its AI spending. OpenAI is reportedly still unprofitable despite having over 1 billion weekly users.

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ChatGPT has converted about 5.5% of its weekly users into paid subscribers. Considering the generous access levels that come with the free tier of Muse, Meta's conversion rate might be even lower. Even with 1 billion users and a 5.5% conversion rate, 55 million subscribers, generating an average of $25 per month, would translate into about $16.5 billion in annual subscription revenue. Considering that Meta generated over $228 billion in revenue over the last 12 months, some might see the 11% gain in its stock price, adding well over $100 billion to its market cap, as an overreaction.

In fact, it looks like an underreaction to me. Because the value of Muse doesn't just stem from subscription revenue, but from the user data it can provide.

Meta isn't just another AI company With Muse, Meta gains access to a stream of extremely valuable user data that has long been dominated by its two biggest rivals in digital advertising. Users are explicitly telling Muse what they want now, be it a new outfit, plane tickets, or a weekend itinerary. That's the kind of information previously only shared in the search box on Alphabet's (GOOG +0.93%) (GOOGL +1.30%) Google or on Amazon's (AMZN +0.25%) website.

Advertisers pay a premium for Google ads compared to Meta ads because users actively searching for something have extremely high purchase intent. Meta can come close to determining exactly what ads its users will be most interested in at any point in time, but there's nothing that compares to the signal of a Google or Amazon search. With Muse, it gains an engaged base of users who are interacting with the app while they have high purchase intent.

What's more, given how Muse works, it knows whether the user followed through. That gives it an opportunity to re-target ads to users, which will likely result in higher conversion rates for Facebook and Instagram ads. Better ad conversions lead to higher ad prices.

Meta's ad business generated revenue of $227 billion over the last four quarters. Each 1% improvement in ad pricing would amount to a $2.27 billion increase in revenue.

While there's potential for Meta to put ads in Muse at some point (OpenAI started showing ads in ChatGPT earlier this year), investors shouldn't discount the value of Muse for the giant advertising business in the immediate term. Nonetheless, amid the excitement about potential subscription revenue from Meta's AI efforts, many seem to have forgotten Meta's core business and how the new app's engagement could improve it.

Even after the stock's recent pop, it trades at less than 24 times expected forward earnings. That's still a great bargain for the company, which could see an earnings-per-share boost as Muse AI drives revenue growth in ways that go well beyond its subscriptions.

Meta wants its artificial intelligence agent, Muse, with people all day.

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With Meta Connect in the rearview mirror, Steven Dickens offers his big takeaways from the event and what new Meta Platforms (META) tech means for the Mag 7 stock as it hits 52-week highs. He believes the company's Muse AI agent, along with the pocket-sized Muse Charm and VR glasses, will embed AI directly with people's day-to-day lives.

Meta Platforms gave several updates on its AI efforts last night that analysts see driving big gains for its business, and its stock.

A casual conversation between a Wall Street analyst and Mark Zuckerberg at a UFC event sparked one of the boldest bull cases on Meta in years, and the stock moved like Zuckerberg knew something the market did not.

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LightShed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield walked onto Squawk Box Thursday morning with a story that has quickly become the loudest bull case on Meta. He said he ran into Mark Zuckerberg at UFC 250, and the Meta CEO told him directly, “you’re going to think of META like you thought of anthropic,” predicting the perception shift would happen “over in pretty short order.”

Weeks later, the receipts are piling up. Meta (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) shares are up 35.41% over the past month, the Muse app “shot to the top of the apple app store last night,” and Greenfield published a fresh $925 one-year price target on the stock, edging past the $920 JPMorgan set days earlier. At around $756.41 intraday, that implies meaningful room to run.

Why the Anthropic Comparison Matters Anthropic is the reference stock for a pure-play frontier AI lab that investors assign an outsized multiple to on the basis of model progress and enterprise adoption. Zuckerberg’s thesis, as reflected on the Q2 2026 earnings call, is that Meta should trade on similar terms. He told analysts, “It’s been a little more than a year since we launched Meta Super Intelligence Labs, and our trajectory is strong.” Meta has since released MuseSpark 1.1, an agentic coding model available through its public API, and reported a 60% increase in the number of people interacting with the assistant each day since integrating Muse Spark into Meta AI.

The financial scaffolding under that pivot is enormous. Meta has raised full-year 2026 capex guidance to $130-145B, funded in part by long-term debt that climbed to $83.66B. Q2 2026 free cash flow collapsed to $784M vs $8.55B a year earlier, with capex hitting $30.12B in the quarter alone. The details are in Meta’s Q2 2026 earnings release filed with the SEC.

A Twist Nobody Is Saying Out Loud Even after the sprint, Meta has essentially clawed back to flat. Over the past year the stock is up just 0.46%, meaning the vertical move Greenfield is celebrating has largely restored lost ground rather than created new highs. The 52-week range of $519.37 to $763.90 tells the same story, and insider activity has skewed toward selling across 152 recent transactions.

Polymarket traders are pricing in the enthusiasm but stopping short of a runaway. The market for whether Meta finishes the year worth more than OpenAI sits at 0.915 for Meta, and Thursday’s intraday market gave a 0.71 probability to a close above $750.

Greenfield’s Second Message: Ignore the Glasses Meta unveiled a $1,299 VR glasses lineup and camera-less smart glasses at Meta Connect on Sept. 23. Greenfield told viewers to “almost put to the side” the hardware, arguing “The software platform is what matters” and that Meta is “betting that an agentic personal assistant with superintelligence is the future” regardless of the form factor.

His edge case rests on distribution. Meta’s 3 billion users across WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook is the pipeline into which Muse gets shipped. On the earnings call, Zuckerberg framed it identically, saying personal agents “really plays to Meta’s strengths as a company. We build consumer products that reach billions of people.” Business agents on WhatsApp and Messenger are already used by more than 1 million businesses weekly.

What to Watch Next Meta’s Q3 2026 revenue guide is $61-64B. Sell-side sentiment already leans in: 55 buy or strong buy ratings against 7 holds and zero sells. Meta’s official investor relations page is the cleanest place to track the next filing. Watch capex commentary and Muse’s app-store persistence. If Zuckerberg’s aside at UFC 250 holds up, the re-rating still has room. If capex intensity chokes free cash flow into 2027 without model-driven revenue to match, the Anthropic comparison flips into a millstone.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Shares of Meta Platforms NASDAQ: META have been on an absolute tear. The stock’s closing low in August was approximately $543. Since then, shares have gained over 25%.

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The company’s Muse personal AI agent has been a primary driver of this surge. Muse recently became the most-downloaded free app on Apple's NASDAQ: AAPL U.S. App Store, taking the top spot from OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

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The excitement comes as Muse could become a key avenue for Meta to drive non-advertising AI revenue.

Muse is not the only way that Meta is looking to juice its non-advertising revenue. The company also unveiled various subscription plans months ago and recently announced an update to this initiative.

Meta Pushes Forward Subscription Plan RolloutMeta released several subscription offerings in late May, called “Meta One” plans. These subscriptions cost between $2.99 per month and $19.99 per month for consumers. The more expensive plans provide more premium features across all three of Meta’s apps: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, as well as more AI usage. The company also released business and creator plans, starting at $14.99 per month and going up to $49.99 per month.

It appears the company has now introduced even more expensive business and creator plans. The Expert plan costs $149 per month, while the Max plan is $499 per month. These plans greatly increase the human support businesses can receive, with the Max plan providing unlimited support cases per month and offering the most access to the Meta Business Agent.

These plans are now globally available, following an initial rollout over the past few months. Meta notes that it has so far amassed 15 million subscriptions and trials to date. Given that this figure includes both subscriptions with an unknown price breakdown and trials, it is difficult to assess the revenue effect. However, assuming a blended price of $10 per month for 15 million users would equate to $1.8 billion in annual sales. This would be very small relative to Meta’s expected total revenue of over $250 billion in 2026, but the offerings are still in the early stages of rollout.

Recent Data Shows Spiking In-App Purchase ActivitySome particularly interesting data points come from the mobile consumer data platform Apptopia. The company measured in-app purchases (IAP) revenue between Meta’s initial subscription rollout and mid-September. Up until Sept. 9, there was essentially no change in these numbers. However, that day, IAP revenue soared and has remained elevated since. Daily average IAP revenue on Instagram rose 475% to $1.2 million compared to $209,000 in the prior eight weeks. On Facebook, average daily IAP revenue rose 143% to $528,000. Both of these figures surpassed previous all-time high IAP levels. These figures imply incremental daily IAP revenue of approximately $991,000 for Instagram and $311,000 for Facebook, or around $1.3 million combined.

As an illustration, extending this over 365 days would imply a $475 million IAP uplift, a very small figure versus Meta’s revenue base. However, again, the rollout is in the early innings, meaning that a further uplift from here is fully possible. Additionally, Apptopia’s figures omit WhatsApp, which has its own subscription plan, but can also be bundled with Facebook and Instagram plans.

Notably, Wall Street analysts see Meta’s subscriptions as a significant longer-term opportunity for the Magnificent Seven giant. BNP Paribas and Truist estimate Meta’s subscriptions could generate $13.5 billion in sales by 2028 and $20 billion by 2030, respectively. These figures are equal to around 5.3% and 7.9% of Meta’s expected total revenue in 2026.

Taking BNP Paribas’s 2028 forecast with an assumed blended price of $10 per subscription would require 112.5 million paying users over a full year. While this number is large in absolute terms, it would represent just 3.1% of Meta’s 3.6 billion daily active user base. Additionally, the much more expensive business and creator plans could push the blended subscription price higher.

Subscriptions and Muse Adoption: 2 Non-Ad Metrics to WatchAt this point, it appears unlikely that Meta’s subscription plans are moving the needle significantly on the company's revenue. However, the longer-term growth potential is what is important, with recent IAP data providing encouraging early signals.

Meta’s Q3 earnings report typically takes place near the end of October, at which point the firm may provide a more substantial update on subscription adoption. However, Meta tends to remain tight-lipped until new offerings reach a critical mass, meaning that updates could be limited for some time. Still, subscription adoption and Muse adoption are two new data points for investors to monitor in future earnings calls to assess Meta’s non-advertising growth trajectory.

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Meta Platforms (META +3.29%) stock exploded higher Friday, soaring more than 11% as its new "Muse" artificial intelligence agent began gaining momentum. Aside from a brief pause Tuesday as a few investors took profits off the table, the stock's gone nowhere but up since then, including a 3.1% gain through 11:35 a.m. this morning.

And Wall Street analysts are pretty sure they know why.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Muse makes Meta more valuable Four analysts -- Tigress, Raymond James, JPMorgan, and Citizens -- raised price targets on Meta stock to as high as $995 per share today. That's after Cantor Fitzgerald and KeyBanc raised targets just yesterday.

Evercore ISI sees Muse as a more likely catalyst for Meta stock than the "Metaverse" ever was. "Just like GOOGL in 2025, what we are witnessing is a transition from a perceived 'AI Loser' to an 'AI Winner,'" says the analyst.

Raymond James notes that 300,000 users download Muse per day. And while it's going to be expensive for Meta to service those accounts, RJ estimates the cost will be no more than $12 billion per year -- while the revenue Muse brings in could approach $50 billion.

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What this means for Meta stock This is easy math. Assuming the analysts are right, a successful Muse rollout could add $38 billion to Meta's $228.2 billion annual revenue stream -- 22% growth from a single new product. It would be incredibly profitable growth, too, earning gross margins as high as 76%.

Granted, that's not quite as high as the 82% gross margin Meta was already earning, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. But it's not half bad for a brand-new product and could become even more profitable over time as Muse scales.

At a P/E ratio under 28, Meta stock might be a buy.

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.