Meta Platforms (META +1.02%) stock continued to rise on Wednesday, and it largely has Muse to thank for this. Its just-released Muse artificial intelligence (AI) agent is a hot item with consumers, and is not only building a considerable user base but attracting companies to its ecosystem.
On Hump Day, several analysts weighed in with positive takes on Meta and Muse, which helped boost investor sentiment. Meta's shares closed the day up by 1%.
Image source: Getty Images.
The Muse effect That morning, Stifel published a note that characterized AI agents as potentially significant catalysts for growth in the application services segment.
According to reports, the note's authors, led by J. Parker Lane, said that consumer AI agents like Muse offer a set of assistive services -- custom recommendations for shoppers and easier purchases, among others -- that can increase the number of transactions. That's a rising tide that can benefit many businesses involved in e-commerce.
Meanwhile, two analysts felt compelled to raise their price targets for Meta stock, citing Muse's potential as a key reason. Cantor Fitzgerald's Deepak Mathivanan lifted his to $860 per share from $680, and Justin Patterson from KeyBanc upped his to $900 from $780. Both pundits maintained the equivalent of buy recommendations on the shares.
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Going Meta Meta has clearly judged the market well here. Muse is far from the only commercially available AI model, but it's advanced enough to offer many capabilities not found in traditional, text-based chatbots.
It's also, importantly, a new revenue stream for Meta (as it's a part of its Meta One premium package), which will help the company reduce its dependence on advertising revenue. Those two Wednesday price target increases were rather assertive, but given Muse's potential, they look justified to me.
Eric Volkman 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.
Meta’s new Muse AI agent is weighing on financial stocks as investors fear the bot could be powerful enough to transform the industry – providing serious competition to human advisors.
Leading financial firms Charles Schwab, LPL Financial, Raymond James and Ameriprise Financial fell 0.8%, 1.4%, 0.9% and 1.9%, respectively, by 3:50 p.m. ET Wednesday — as Muse continued to draw plaudits for the array of tasks it can perform since it was released earlier this month.
Wall Street banks JPMorgan, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs slumped 0.8%, 0.4% and 2.2%, respectively, also extending declines from the previous day. JPMorgan and Bank of America are each down about 4% so far this week.
Meta’s new Muse AI agent is weighing on financial stocks. Mark White, wealth advisor at Mark White Wealth Advisors, told The Post that investors fear Muse could grow so popular, it could force the financial industry to revamp its entire business model.
“Investors are worried that AI assistants could become the first place consumers go for financial information and routine transactions,” he said.
“If that happens, banks and other financial firms may have to spend more to reach customers, compete harder on fees and rethink how they deliver service.”
Downloads of Meta’s latest AI agent have already soared past rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and SpaceXAI’s Grok. Muse was downloaded nearly 1 million times in the six days after its Sept. 8 launch, according to an expert cited by Bloomberg News, and was the top free app in the US on Apple’s AppStore and Google Play as of Monday.
The new bot was designed to feel conversational and automatically complete everyday tasks, like cleaning out email inboxes, filling out electronic forms, making purchases online – and even managing personal finances.
“The wild fear is that if an AI bot can constantly shop for better rates or move customers to another deal in seconds, customer loyalty becomes a faded memory,” Scott Martin, partner at Kingsview Wealth Management, told The Post.
Shares of Bank of America fell amid the broader financial stock sell-off. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post If Muse can manage users’ savings more efficiently than advising firms, then fewer customers could feel the need to hire the old pros – and there would be less cash sitting around for brokerages to turn into profits.
The app’s explosive popularity triggered a sell-off of wealth-management firms, brokerages and top Wall Street banks that started Tuesday and bled into Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 354 points, or 0.7%, while the S&P 500 plunged 0.9%. The Nasdaq dropped 1.3% after hitting a record high in the previous session.
Financial stocks similarly sold off earlier this year after Altruist launched an AI tool that can create personalized tax-planning strategies for users.
Meta launched Muse less than two weeks ago, but downloads of the bot have already soared past rivals. REUTERS But Wall Street is especially worried about Muse since Meta clinched partners like PayPal and Plaid, a fintech platform, and the company already boasts a userbase of billions across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Muse has faced some pushback, notably from Amazon, which blocked the AI agent from completing purchases on its website.
Experts have also said that financial stocks could easily reverse course if the industry figures out a way to use the new technology to its advantage – and fast.
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“The question is which companies adapt quickly enough to benefit,” said White, adding that AI could help financial services firms and banks lower costs and provide better customer service.
Martin agreed, saying, “The players who want to stay up on things will also use such tech, meaning some of them could get a lot more relevant.”
Anthropic, for example, recently launched tools powered by its Claude bot that are partnered with Schwab and Vanguard.
Many customers might also be hesitant to hand over their finances to an AI bot, an advantage for the traditional finance industry.
“For wealth management, a bot may make it easier to gather information or compare options,” White said. “Clients still need someone accountable for understanding their full situation, exercising judgment and helping them make decisions when the stakes are high.”
In the meantime, financial firms are bracing for an unfavorable environment as the 10-year Treasury yield briefly hit a 19-year high this week. Higher borrowing costs often squash demand for loans.
Two major Wall Street firms just handed Meta dramatically higher price targets, and the reasoning goes well beyond advertising. The real question is whether Meta's AI spending spree is finally opening doors that could redefine its growth story.
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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) is drawing a fresh wave of bullish Wall Street revisions, with KeyBanc analyst Justin Patterson lifting his price target to $900 from $780 and Cantor Fitzgerald raising its target to $860 from $680, both keeping Overweight ratings.
Both firms cite momentum around Meta’s Muse AI assistant and multiple emerging revenue lanes. For long-term investors, the coordinated price target raised signals conviction that Meta’s AI spend is starting to translate into tangible growth paths.
Ticker Company Firm Action Old Rating New Rating Old Target New Target META Meta Platforms KeyBanc Price target raised Overweight Overweight $780 $900 META Meta Platforms Cantor Fitzgerald Price target raised Overweight Overweight $680 $860 Analyst Case KeyBanc’s Patterson argues that Muse’s momentum reinforces the view that sentiment around consumer AI is poised to improve, and that Meta now has “multiple paths to drive revenue growth.” The firm expects product innovation to drive faster medium-term revenue and earnings growth, supporting multiple expansion.
Cantor Fitzgerald frames personal agents as a potential “third S-curve” in AI, with Meta positioned as a leading beneficiary. Cantor calls Muse a “competitive model” trained to lead in agentic tasks and, while unit economics are currently subsidized, sees “several paths to a profitable freemium model.”
Company Snapshot Meta carries a market cap near $1.67 trillion and trades around a P/E of 27. Q2 FY2026 revenue reached $60.80 billion, up 27.96% year over year, with advertising revenue of $59.36 billion (+27% YoY).
Diluted EPS came in at $6.18, missing the $7.22 consensus as costs jumped on $2.40B in legal charges and $1.18B in severance. Capex hit $31.1 billion in the quarter, and management guided FY2026 capex to $130 to $145 billion to fund AI infrastructure.
Why the Move Matters Now Meta stock has ripped higher into these revisions, up 37.6% over the past month and 12.9% in the past week, trading near $756.15.
The 2026 consensus EPS sits at $31.4292, rising to $33.9428 for 2027, with revenue estimates of roughly $254 billion and $306 billion, respectively.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the 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.” Reddit sentiment mirrors the tone, with the latest aggregate score at 72 (bullish).
What It Means for Your Portfolio For retirement-focused investors, the case for Meta stock hinges on whether AI monetization, from ad ranking gains to Advantage Plus reaching over $75 billion in annual revenue run rate and business agents on WhatsApp, can outpace the heavy capex cycle.
With operating margin compressed to 31% from 43% YoY, execution on the “multiple paths” thesis will determine whether these higher targets prove justified.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Meta Platforms, Inc.'s Muse may be more valuable as a transaction layer than as a subscription product, allowing Meta to monetize purchases, bookings, leads, and other completed outcomes. Shopify's Shop Pay integration provides an early example of agentic commerce, while Amazon's decision to block Muse highlights how strategically valuable control over purchase intent could become. Meta already has the distribution, advertiser relationships, business agents, and performance-based monetization infrastructure needed to extend its model from attention toward transaction-based revenue.
Meta's new AI shopping agent is rattling Instacart investors, but the real threat may not be the one the market is pricing in right now.
Instacart (NASDAQ:CART | CART Price Prediction) closed at $44.41 on September 22, 2026, down 10.88% over the past month and 5.13% in the past week alone. That is a real move for a name that beat revenue expectations in its most recent quarter and grew gross transaction value 14% year over year.
The market is telling you agentic shopping breaks the Instacart model. A trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 25x and a forward multiple of 14x suggests otherwise. That gap between the price action and the multiple is the core investment question.
What Meta Launched Meta (NASDAQ:META) introduced a personal artificial intelligence agent called Muse on September 8, 2026, as a standalone app and WhatsApp tool that can perform transactions on your behalf.
Adoption was faster than Meta expected. Alexandr Wang said usage was well beyond expectations, and Meta shares popped nearly 7% the day after the unveiling. The pricing is tiered, with monthly payments of $20 to $100 above a free option.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) blocked the agent from its store after requesting to be opted out. Companies build walls when traffic is at risk.
What an Agent Can and Cannot Disintermediate Instacart earns money in three ways: transaction fees on orders, advertising from brands paying for placement, and enterprise software sold to grocers. Transaction revenue was $746 million in the second quarter, and advertising was $297 million, up 16%.
An agent that picks products attacks the advertising line, because sponsored placement only has value when a human eye scans a screen. It does not solve the physical problem of moving perishable goods from shelf to kitchen within an hour.
Advertising crossed $1 billion for 2025 and is the high-margin engine supporting the multiple.
Why the Fulfillment Network Is the Defense The actual asset is boring and hard to copy: contracts with grocery chains, store-level catalog and inventory data, roughly 600,000 shoppers, and enterprise integrations that let a grocer sell online without building anything. Storefront powers more than 380 grocery sites.
An agent still needs someone to pick a ripe avocado and hand it to a driver. The question is whether Muse becomes the front door and demotes Instacart to a low-margin utility. Commoditization is slower and more damaging than disintermediation.
Valuation and the Falsifiable Trigger A market cap of $10.28 billion against $3.99 billion in trailing revenue prices in uncertainty.
Instacart embraces agents. It became Google’s first grocery partner to integrate with Gemini, launched ChatGPT Instant Checkout late last year, and integrated Anthropic’s Claude in the first quarter. Instacart has not announced a partnership with Meta.
The trigger to watch: whether advertising and other revenue growth decelerates from the 15% to 18% range guided for the third quarter in the next two earnings reports. That is where this thesis shows up.
Bull and Bear Case for CART Stock The bull case: the selloff punishes a profitable marketplace for theoretical risk. Free cash flow was $480 million in the second quarter, and the company repurchased $325 million of stock.
The fulfillment network is hard to replicate. Management integrates with agents customers use elsewhere while building its own AI assistant, producing baskets above the $115 industry-leading average order value.
The bear case: advertising is the high-margin dollar carrying the multiple, and agents make sponsored placement less valuable by design. A business reduced to fulfillment deserves a lower multiple, and Amazon blocking Muse suggests incumbents believe the threat is real.
Watch the third-quarter report in early November for a possible deceleration below the guided range.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Meta's Muse (META.O), the first major consumer product to emerge under Alexandr Wang since he was hired to head its AI efforts last year, has split the fortunes of US stocks this week.
Muse, which allows users to delegate tasks such as shopping, travel booking and form-filling to an AI agent, overtook ChatGPT as the top free app on Apple's App Store and Google Play Store in the US and Canada.
The app recorded 2.8 million downloads within two weeks of its launch, posting an average daily download growth of 55% in the first 10 days, according to market intelligence company Sensor Tower.
Investors worried that Meta's scale could turn Muse into a powerful comparison-shopping tool, enabling consumers to more easily find lower-cost alternatives and weakening the loyalty that often keeps users with incumbent providers.
The development dragged on several sectors this week, while Meta and AI-infrastructure related companies rallied.
"Meta has really found lightning in a bottle here and someone who partners with Muse is likely to be a clear beneficiary off the bat to me. As far as net losers, it's just going to take more time to find out," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading.
JITTERS ACROSS SECTORS
Financials stocks were the hardest-hit in the previous session and remained under pressure on Wednesday on fears that the AI agent could prompt users to switch to policies with cheaper prices.
Big banks such as JPMorgan (JPM.N) and Wells Fargo (WFC.N) lost more than 3% each so far this week, while brokerage Charles Schwab (SCHW.N) was down nearly 5%. Insurers such as Marsh (MRSH.N) and Arthur J. Gallagher (AJG.N) were down 2.4% and 4.6%, respectively.
Art Hogan, chief market strategist for B. Riley Wealth, however, said those disruption concerns were far-fetched.
"If you're going to trust the management of your finances to something that Muse found for you, then you were likely not a big payer to anyone in that industry to begin with. There's a whole lot more that goes in asset management than who's got the cheapest price," he said.
Booking companies such as TripAdvisor (TRIP.O) and Booking Holdings (BKNG.O), which rely on subscription models, have lost over 6% this week.
Planet Fitness (PLNT.N) has tanked 17%, while the New York Times (NYT.N) is down 10%.
Other decliners included ride-hailing companies such as Uber (UBER.N) and Lyft (LYFT.O), and online food marketplace DoorDash (DASH.O).
THE BIGGEST WINNERS
Meta's shares have soared nearly 13% this week and are set for their fifth-straight week of advances.
The gains were fueled by expectations that the mainstream consumer-focused app could generate additional annual revenue, with Truist Securities estimating it to touch at least $28.5 billion by fiscal 2030.
US-listed shares of Canada's Shopify have jumped 11.4% this week, after it said it would use Muse to process checkouts. Payments platform PayPal (PYPL.O) has marginally gained after saying it would allow users to discover products and complete purchases through the AI agent.
Privately held companies, including Stripe and Ticketmaster, also struck similar deals with Meta.
MORE AI INFRASTRUCTURE DEMAND
Apps such as Muse could drive AI compute demand, accelerating AI infrastructure buildout and benefiting chip stocks.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (.SOX) has gained 7% since Muse's launch and is set for its biggest two-week run since mid-August, with Nvidia (NVDA.O) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) among top gainers.
Rothschild Capital Partners LLC reduced its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 37.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,402 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 843 shares during the period. Rothschild Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $790,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,734,628,000 after acquiring an additional 878,396 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $22,152,075,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Meta Platforms by 14.6% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 21,038,035 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,036,491,000 after acquiring an additional 2,673,494 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 18,200,469 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,013,948,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046,715 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Monness Crespi & Hardt decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $890.00 to $730.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $725.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $780.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $789.63.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Meta Platforms Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms In other news, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $650.28, for a total value of $13,005,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 244,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,003,864.48. This trade represents a 7.56% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal 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, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,848 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $558.00, for a total transaction of $4,379,184.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 828 shares in the company, valued at approximately $462,024. The trade was a 90.46% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 81,758 shares of company stock worth $51,214,020 over the last quarter. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Meta Platforms News Roundup Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
Positive Sentiment: Muse is gaining significant consumer traction. The agent reportedly surpassed ChatGPT’s early mobile download pace and can handle tasks such as shopping, travel bookings, email and financial-related services. Investors increasingly view Muse as a potential new revenue platform rather than simply another AI feature. Wall Street expects Meta’s AI agent to shape into a new revenue engine Positive Sentiment: Commercial partnerships strengthen the monetization case. Shopify is integrating Shop Pay checkout with Muse, while PayPal is also expected to use the agent. These deals could help Meta capture value from AI-powered commerce and create a platform for outside developers and services. Shopify Brings Shop Pay Checkout Solution to Meta’s Muse AI Agent Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised their targets. Jefferies increased its Meta price target to $875 from $710 and maintained a Buy rating, while Bank of America reaffirmed Buy with an $810 target. Analysts cited Muse’s early adoption and potential to add a new earnings stream. Jefferies Adjusts Price Target on Meta Platforms Positive Sentiment: The core advertising business remains supportive. Meta’s latest reported revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, with stronger ad pricing helping offset slower impression growth. Investors are also looking ahead to additional AI announcements at Meta Connect. Neutral Sentiment: Meta continues to expand its AI infrastructure. Its planned Petal subsea cable and reported custom CPU work with Arm could improve long-term computing capacity and efficiency, but these projects require substantial capital and will not produce immediate revenue. Negative Sentiment: Execution and spending concerns remain. Meta’s recent EPS missed consensus despite revenue growth, while rising capital expenditures, debt and weaker cash-flow expectations could limit near-term upside after the stock’s large advance. Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s refusal to allow Muse shopping highlights platform friction. Meta is also testing human contractors to complete some Muse calls, raising questions about reliability, privacy, scalability and the cost of delivering the service. Meta testing a human concierge for Muse Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.6% NASDAQ:META opened at $736.59 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $609.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $610.57. The company has a market capitalization of $1.88 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $770.60. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS 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 business had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $7.14 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 27.93 EPS for the current year.
Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Monday, September 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 21st. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.91%.
Meta Platforms 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.
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Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) has something new to show investors after years of pouring billions into artificial intelligence: consumers appear to want the product. Muse has raced up app charts since its Sept. 8 launch, helping push Meta shares more than 20% higher. But Jensen Investment Management recently sold its Meta position over concerns about the returns on the company’s escalating AI investment — putting that decision under a new spotlight.
"META validated an important part of our original thesis," Allen Bond, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Jensen Investment Management, told Benzinga in an exclusive email interview. But he said Meta’s subsequent acceleration in capital spending and R&D was "greater than we anticipated," while the returns on much of that additional investment remain uncertain. "Our sale reflected this change in incremental ROIC," Bond said, "rather than deterioration in META’s high-quality core business."
Muse Changes the AI DebateThe early traction has quickly made Muse the centerpiece of Meta’s AI story.
Early adoption has given investors plenty to celebrate. Apptopia estimates Muse generated 2.8 million global installs during its first 12 days, while its U.S. and Canada iOS downloads outpaced ChatGPT’s comparable early mobile launch, reported TechCrunch. Muse has also reached No. 1 on the U.S. App Store.
Meta shares have responded accordingly. The stock gained more than 20% since Muse launched, with the stock’s rally adding about $200 billion in market value as investors began viewing the agent as a potential new revenue engine.
But Bond’s assessment goes beyond whether Meta has built a hit. The issue for Jensen is what happens to the economics as Meta’s AI investment gets larger. While AI has already demonstrated benefits for "user experience, ad targeting and monetization," the acceleration in capex and R&D means Meta now has to generate enough additional economic value to justify the expanding investment.
Read Next
Investors Need More Than DownloadsFor Bond, the evidence of sufficient AI returns would have to show up in the financial statements.
"Evidence of sufficient AI returns would include sustained revenue benefits," he said, followed ultimately by "a return toward historical free-cash-flow and margin profiles" across the major hyperscalers as investment growth normalizes.
And Bond sees several variables that make the return equation difficult to forecast. He points to "the magnitude and duration of the capex cycle," AI-model monetization, political pushback and "rapid improvements in chip efficiency and technology."
The ROI TestBut Bond’s framework shifts the investor question from "Will people use Muse?" to "Will the economics justify what Meta is spending to build it?"
For META, downloads may have fueled the rally; sustained revenue, cash flow and margins will determine whether the AI investment can ultimately earn its keep.
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Meta Platforms (META +2.64%) has been one of the hottest big tech companies in the stock market this fall. Meta stock is up more than 30% over the last month, following a series of moves that are reshaping investor views of the social media monolith.
First, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,500-word manifesto that laid out a bold vision for Meta and artificial intelligence, pledging to create free AI-powered personal agents and "superintelligence."
Then the company launched Meta One, its subscription service that provides expanded AI usage and premium features on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The subscription model has great potential for Meta's bottom line, providing an important secondary revenue source to the company's already-dominant advertising business.
And finally, Meta has launched Muse, its AI agent that the company says will work on a user's behalf and interact with apps to perform tasks the user requires. "It helps people stay on top of things, takes tasks and projects off their plate, and turns long-term goals into action plans," the company said.
Now, companies are starting to fall in line to have access to Muse. Instacart (CART -3.99%) announced on Sept. 22 that it is partnering with Meta to allow shoppers to use Muse to purchase groceries online through its platform. (Instacart's official name is Maplebear, but the company does business under the Instacart name.)
"Connectors like Muse expand access to online grocery," Instacart's chief technology officer, Anirban Kundu, wrote in an article on the company's website. "For some, a connector may be their first experience shopping for groceries online, with a simple path to create an Instacart account and place their first order. Instacart's AI grocery ecosystem is built to meet customers wherever they shop -- on our platform, on retailer sites, and in the AI experiences they already use."
Image source: Getty Images.
First Shopify, then InstacartThe announcement comes a day after Shopify (SHOP -3.27%) and Meta announced a collaboration that will provide Muse with access to Shopify's merchant catalog and checkout infrastructure, allowing it to shop and complete purchases for users. Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke called it an "easy and delightful way to check out with Muse," while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the partnership would make it easier for people to shop and check out. "More partnerships like this coming soon," he wrote on an X social media post.
Muse offers some free services -- fulfilling the vision outlined in Zuckerberg's manifesto -- but also offers premium tiers ranging from $20 to $100 a month, thereby generating additional revenue for Meta.
Premium Feature
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What are analysts saying about Meta stock?Wall Street experts have high expectations for Muse, with one analyst comparing it favorably to ChatGPT, the generative AI tool that debuted nearly four years ago and triggered the massive build-out of AI and hundreds of billions in revenue for top tech companies.
"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 analysts said in a note.
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill set a $875 price target for Meta stock, representing potential upside of 17% on top of Meta's gains this month. "Prior to Muse, investors had completely dismissed the idea that Meta would be able to release a personalized consumer AI agent, favoring (Alphabet) instead," he said.
It's clear that Muse is becoming more than just another AI assistant. Meta seems poised to attract major partners while opening the door to new subscription and e-commerce opportunities. We may be seeing the next major growth engine for Meta Platforms stock.
Key Takeaways Muse AI could weaken customer stickiness across banks, brokerages and wealth managers.JPMorgan may face higher deposit competition as AI agents compare rates and move funds more easily.Schwab could see greater fee transparency, lower switching barriers and higher retention costs. Meta’s fast-rising Muse AI agent has emerged as a fresh concern for finance stocks, as investors assess whether autonomous AI assistants could weaken the customer stickiness that supports banks, brokerages and wealth managers.
The development weighed on several major financial names yesterday. Charles Schwab (SCHW - Free Report) was among the hardest hit, declining 6.1%, while JPMorgan (JPM - Free Report) and Wells Fargo (WFC - Free Report) dropped more than 3% each. Morgan Stanley (MS - Free Report) also declined more than 2.5% as markets considered how AI-powered financial decision-making could reshape competition across the industry.
Banks Could Face Higher Deposit CompetitionFor banks, including JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, the key risk centers on deposits. AI agents could eventually monitor savings rates across institutions, identify higher-yielding alternatives and move funds with minimal customer involvement.
Such capabilities could reduce deposit inertia, making customers more responsive to rate differences. That might force banks to offer more competitive deposit pricing, potentially increasing funding costs and creating pressure on net interest margin (NIM).
SCHW & Morgan Stanley Face Greater Fee TransparencyFor Schwab and Morgan Stanley, the challenge is more closely tied to brokerage and wealth management. AI agents could make it easier for clients to compare advisory fees, brokerage costs, cash yields and investment products across competing platforms.
Over time, customers could use autonomous assistants to locate lower-cost products, optimize idle cash or initiate account transfers. That may increase fee transparency, lower switching barriers and raise customer-retention costs.
What This Means for the Finance IndustryThe main concern is not that AI agents will replace banks, brokers or wealth managers. Instead, they could make it much easier for customers to switch between financial providers.
For JPM, WFC, SCHW, MS and other financial firms, this could mean tougher competition for deposits, investment assets and advisory clients. Customers may be able to use AI tools to quickly compare interest rates, fees, investment products and services, and then move their money to a better option with less effort.
The impact on earnings is still uncertain. However, Meta’s Muse has brought more attention to the risk that AI could reduce customer loyalty and make financial relationships less sticky over time.
Currently, JPMorgan, Schwab and Wells Fargo carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), whereas Morgan Stanley has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 12.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 18,094 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,953 shares during the period. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $10,189,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% in the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $22,152,075,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 14.6% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 21,038,035 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $12,036,491,000 after acquiring an additional 2,673,494 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 18,200,469 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $12,013,948,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046,715 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes Several research firms have recently weighed in on META. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $810.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $800.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. BNP Paribas Exane assumed coverage on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $766.00 to $715.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $789.63.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Meta Platforms Insider Activity at Meta Platforms In related news, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $675.23, for a total transaction of $13,504,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 224,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $151,599,938.68. This trade represents a 8.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,196 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $550.61, for a total transaction of $5,063,409.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,260,343.46. This trade represents a 41.09% decrease in their position. 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 ninety days, insiders have sold 81,758 shares of company stock valued at $51,214,020. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.6% Shares of META stock opened at $736.59 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $520.26 and a 12-month high of $770.60. The company has a market capitalization of $1.88 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $609.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $610.57. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $7.14 EPS. As a group, 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 issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 21st. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.91%.
Meta Platforms News Roundup Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
Positive Sentiment: Muse is gaining significant consumer traction. The agent reportedly surpassed ChatGPT’s early mobile download pace and can handle tasks such as shopping, travel bookings, email and financial-related services. Investors increasingly view Muse as a potential new revenue platform rather than simply another AI feature. Wall Street expects Meta’s AI agent to shape into a new revenue engine Positive Sentiment: Commercial partnerships strengthen the monetization case. Shopify is integrating Shop Pay checkout with Muse, while PayPal is also expected to use the agent. These deals could help Meta capture value from AI-powered commerce and create a platform for outside developers and services. Shopify Brings Shop Pay Checkout Solution to Meta’s Muse AI Agent Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised their targets. Jefferies increased its Meta price target to $875 from $710 and maintained a Buy rating, while Bank of America reaffirmed Buy with an $810 target. Analysts cited Muse’s early adoption and potential to add a new earnings stream. Jefferies Adjusts Price Target on Meta Platforms Positive Sentiment: The core advertising business remains supportive. Meta’s latest reported revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, with stronger ad pricing helping offset slower impression growth. Investors are also looking ahead to additional AI announcements at Meta Connect. Neutral Sentiment: Meta continues to expand its AI infrastructure. Its planned Petal subsea cable and reported custom CPU work with Arm could improve long-term computing capacity and efficiency, but these projects require substantial capital and will not produce immediate revenue. Negative Sentiment: Execution and spending concerns remain. Meta’s recent EPS missed consensus despite revenue growth, while rising capital expenditures, debt and weaker cash-flow expectations could limit near-term upside after the stock’s large advance. Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s refusal to allow Muse shopping highlights platform friction. Meta is also testing human contractors to complete some Muse calls, raising questions about reliability, privacy, scalability and the cost of delivering the service. Meta testing a human concierge for Muse Meta Platforms 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.
Featured Stories Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Meta’s Muse Highlights Arm’s Growing Role in AI Infrastructure Oura’s $15.6 Billion IPO Is Betting Investors See More Than a Smart Ring AMD Chips Away at NVIDIA’s AI Throne Is the Fed Playing Chess With Rates—Or Just Behind the Curve Again?
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Triumph Capital Management boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 50.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,767 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,938 shares during the period. Triumph Capital Management’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,249,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of META. Watchman Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the first quarter. Watchman Group Inc. now owns 5,091 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,913,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Penney Financial LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.9% in the first quarter. Penney Financial LLC now owns 399 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $228,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,519 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $869,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. CWS Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. CWS Financial Advisors LLC now owns 985 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $564,000 after buying an additional 16 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tenzing Financial LLC boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.
Meta Platforms News Roundup Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
Positive Sentiment: Muse is gaining significant consumer traction. The agent reportedly surpassed ChatGPT’s early mobile download pace and can handle tasks such as shopping, travel bookings, email and financial-related services. Investors increasingly view Muse as a potential new revenue platform rather than simply another AI feature. Wall Street expects Meta’s AI agent to shape into a new revenue engine Positive Sentiment: Commercial partnerships strengthen the monetization case. Shopify is integrating Shop Pay checkout with Muse, while PayPal is also expected to use the agent. These deals could help Meta capture value from AI-powered commerce and create a platform for outside developers and services. Shopify Brings Shop Pay Checkout Solution to Meta’s Muse AI Agent Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised their targets. Jefferies increased its Meta price target to $875 from $710 and maintained a Buy rating, while Bank of America reaffirmed Buy with an $810 target. Analysts cited Muse’s early adoption and potential to add a new earnings stream. Jefferies Adjusts Price Target on Meta Platforms Positive Sentiment: The core advertising business remains supportive. Meta’s latest reported revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, with stronger ad pricing helping offset slower impression growth. Investors are also looking ahead to additional AI announcements at Meta Connect. Neutral Sentiment: Meta continues to expand its AI infrastructure. Its planned Petal subsea cable and reported custom CPU work with Arm could improve long-term computing capacity and efficiency, but these projects require substantial capital and will not produce immediate revenue. Negative Sentiment: Execution and spending concerns remain. Meta’s recent EPS missed consensus despite revenue growth, while rising capital expenditures, debt and weaker cash-flow expectations could limit near-term upside after the stock’s large advance. Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s refusal to allow Muse shopping highlights platform friction. Meta is also testing human contractors to complete some Muse calls, raising questions about reliability, privacy, scalability and the cost of delivering the service. Meta testing a human concierge for Muse Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.6% NASDAQ META opened at $736.59 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $609.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $610.57. 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 stock has a market cap of $1.88 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $770.60. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $7.14 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 27.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Monday, September 21st will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.91%.
Insider Activity In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan Li sold 9,196 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $550.61, for a total transaction of $5,063,409.56. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,260,343.46. The trade was a 41.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 6th. The stock was 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 directly owned 9,498 shares in the company, valued at $5,708,013.06. This represents a 26.06% decrease in their position. 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 81,758 shares of company stock worth $51,214,020 in the last 90 days. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades A number of research firms recently issued reports on META. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $595.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 11th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $750.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Citizens Jmp reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $770.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $796.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $789.63.
Check Out Our Latest Report on Meta Platforms
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.
Read More Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Meta’s Muse Highlights Arm’s Growing Role in AI Infrastructure Oura’s $15.6 Billion IPO Is Betting Investors See More Than a Smart Ring AMD Chips Away at NVIDIA’s AI Throne Is the Fed Playing Chess With Rates—Or Just Behind the Curve Again? 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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Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 2,874 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,619,000.
Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. RHL Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Advantage Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Niles Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Philadelphia Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Axiom Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $890.00 to $730.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $810.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $789.63.
Get Our Latest Research Report on Meta Platforms Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.6% NASDAQ:META opened at $736.59 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $520.26 and a 12-month high of $770.60. The firm has a market cap of $1.88 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $609.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $610.57.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.The company had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $7.14 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 27.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 21st will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 7.91%.
Insider Activity In related news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 3,240 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.06, for a total value of $2,002,514.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 6,271 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,875,854.26. This represents a 34.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Susan Li sold 9,196 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $550.61, for a total value of $5,063,409.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,260,343.46. This represents a 41.09% 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 quarter, insiders have sold 81,758 shares of company stock valued at $51,214,020. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.
Key Meta Platforms News Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
Positive Sentiment: Muse is gaining significant consumer traction. The agent reportedly surpassed ChatGPT’s early mobile download pace and can handle tasks such as shopping, travel bookings, email and financial-related services. Investors increasingly view Muse as a potential new revenue platform rather than simply another AI feature. Wall Street expects Meta’s AI agent to shape into a new revenue engine Positive Sentiment: Commercial partnerships strengthen the monetization case. Shopify is integrating Shop Pay checkout with Muse, while PayPal is also expected to use the agent. These deals could help Meta capture value from AI-powered commerce and create a platform for outside developers and services. Shopify Brings Shop Pay Checkout Solution to Meta’s Muse AI Agent Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised their targets. Jefferies increased its Meta price target to $875 from $710 and maintained a Buy rating, while Bank of America reaffirmed Buy with an $810 target. Analysts cited Muse’s early adoption and potential to add a new earnings stream. Jefferies Adjusts Price Target on Meta Platforms Positive Sentiment: The core advertising business remains supportive. Meta’s latest reported revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, with stronger ad pricing helping offset slower impression growth. Investors are also looking ahead to additional AI announcements at Meta Connect. Neutral Sentiment: Meta continues to expand its AI infrastructure. Its planned Petal subsea cable and reported custom CPU work with Arm could improve long-term computing capacity and efficiency, but these projects require substantial capital and will not produce immediate revenue. Negative Sentiment: Execution and spending concerns remain. Meta’s recent EPS missed consensus despite revenue growth, while rising capital expenditures, debt and weaker cash-flow expectations could limit near-term upside after the stock’s large advance. Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s refusal to allow Muse shopping highlights platform friction. Meta is also testing human contractors to complete some Muse calls, raising questions about reliability, privacy, scalability and the cost of delivering the service. Meta testing a human concierge for Muse 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 Meta’s Muse Highlights Arm’s Growing Role in AI Infrastructure Oura’s $15.6 Billion IPO Is Betting Investors See More Than a Smart Ring AMD Chips Away at NVIDIA’s AI Throne Is the Fed Playing Chess With Rates—Or Just Behind the Curve Again?
Receive News & Ratings for Meta Platforms Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Meta Platforms and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
Strategic Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 10.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,577 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,561 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.4% of Strategic Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest position. Strategic Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $7,648,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of META. Fairtree Asset Management Pty Ltd grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 18.6% during the 2nd quarter. Fairtree Asset Management Pty Ltd now owns 18,777 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,577,000 after acquiring an additional 2,939 shares during the period. Madison Wealth Partners Inc increased its position in Meta Platforms by 33.6% in the second quarter. Madison Wealth Partners Inc now owns 3,031 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,707,000 after buying an additional 763 shares during the last quarter. Sone Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 38.2% in the second quarter. Sone Capital Management LLC now owns 16,059 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $9,046,000 after buying an additional 4,440 shares during the period. Lakewood Capital Management LP lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 63.7% during the 2nd quarter. Lakewood Capital Management LP now owns 115,985 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,333,000 after buying an additional 45,130 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Abbot Financial Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 53.5% during the 2nd quarter. Abbot Financial Management Inc. now owns 2,845 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,603,000 after buying an additional 991 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Meta Platforms Stock Performance NASDAQ META opened at $736.59 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $770.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a current ratio of 2.23. The company has a market capitalization of $1.88 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a fifty day moving average of $609.53 and a 200-day moving average of $610.57.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $7.14 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 27.93 EPS for the current fiscal year. Meta Platforms Announces Dividend The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Monday, September 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.525 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 (DPR) is currently 7.91%.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $750.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $800.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $789.63.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on META
Trending Headlines about Meta Platforms Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
Positive Sentiment: Muse is gaining significant consumer traction. The agent reportedly surpassed ChatGPT’s early mobile download pace and can handle tasks such as shopping, travel bookings, email and financial-related services. Investors increasingly view Muse as a potential new revenue platform rather than simply another AI feature. Wall Street expects Meta’s AI agent to shape into a new revenue engine Positive Sentiment: Commercial partnerships strengthen the monetization case. Shopify is integrating Shop Pay checkout with Muse, while PayPal is also expected to use the agent. These deals could help Meta capture value from AI-powered commerce and create a platform for outside developers and services. Shopify Brings Shop Pay Checkout Solution to Meta’s Muse AI Agent Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised their targets. Jefferies increased its Meta price target to $875 from $710 and maintained a Buy rating, while Bank of America reaffirmed Buy with an $810 target. Analysts cited Muse’s early adoption and potential to add a new earnings stream. Jefferies Adjusts Price Target on Meta Platforms Positive Sentiment: The core advertising business remains supportive. Meta’s latest reported revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, with stronger ad pricing helping offset slower impression growth. Investors are also looking ahead to additional AI announcements at Meta Connect. Neutral Sentiment: Meta continues to expand its AI infrastructure. Its planned Petal subsea cable and reported custom CPU work with Arm could improve long-term computing capacity and efficiency, but these projects require substantial capital and will not produce immediate revenue. Negative Sentiment: Execution and spending concerns remain. Meta’s recent EPS missed consensus despite revenue growth, while rising capital expenditures, debt and weaker cash-flow expectations could limit near-term upside after the stock’s large advance. Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s refusal to allow Muse shopping highlights platform friction. Meta is also testing human contractors to complete some Muse calls, raising questions about reliability, privacy, scalability and the cost of delivering the service. Meta testing a human concierge for Muse Insider Buying and Selling In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 3,240 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.06, for a total value of $2,002,514.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 6,271 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,875,854.26. This represents a 34.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Susan Li sold 9,196 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $550.61, for a total transaction of $5,063,409.56. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at $7,260,343.46. The trade was a 41.09% 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 81,758 shares of company stock worth $51,214,020 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.
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 Meta’s Muse Highlights Arm’s Growing Role in AI Infrastructure Oura’s $15.6 Billion IPO Is Betting Investors See More Than a Smart Ring AMD Chips Away at NVIDIA’s AI Throne Is the Fed Playing Chess With Rates—Or Just Behind the Curve Again? 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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Railway Pension Investments Ltd lowered its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 14.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 342,200 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 57,240 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 2.4% of Railway Pension Investments Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Railway Pension Investments Ltd’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $192,758,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. RHL Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Advantage Trust Co bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Philadelphia Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at about $32,000. Axiom Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Bayban raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 100.0% during the first quarter. Bayban now owns 70 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.
Insider Activity at Meta Platforms In related news, insider Christopher Cox sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $650.28, for a total transaction of $13,005,600.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 244,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,003,864.48. The trade was a 7.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,848 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $558.00, for a total transaction of $4,379,184.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 828 shares in the company, valued at approximately $462,024. This trade represents a 90.46% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 81,758 shares of company stock worth $51,214,020 over the last 90 days. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Meta Platforms Stock Performance Shares of META opened at $736.59 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $520.26 and a one year high of $770.60. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $609.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $610.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.88 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results 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 return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $7.14 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 27.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement 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 $0.525 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 (DPR) is presently 7.91%.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $780.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $595.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 11th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $810.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $789.63.
Read Our Latest Report on Meta Platforms
Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
Positive Sentiment: Muse is gaining significant consumer traction. The agent reportedly surpassed ChatGPT’s early mobile download pace and can handle tasks such as shopping, travel bookings, email and financial-related services. Investors increasingly view Muse as a potential new revenue platform rather than simply another AI feature. Wall Street expects Meta’s AI agent to shape into a new revenue engine Positive Sentiment: Commercial partnerships strengthen the monetization case. Shopify is integrating Shop Pay checkout with Muse, while PayPal is also expected to use the agent. These deals could help Meta capture value from AI-powered commerce and create a platform for outside developers and services. Shopify Brings Shop Pay Checkout Solution to Meta’s Muse AI Agent Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised their targets. Jefferies increased its Meta price target to $875 from $710 and maintained a Buy rating, while Bank of America reaffirmed Buy with an $810 target. Analysts cited Muse’s early adoption and potential to add a new earnings stream. Jefferies Adjusts Price Target on Meta Platforms Positive Sentiment: The core advertising business remains supportive. Meta’s latest reported revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, with stronger ad pricing helping offset slower impression growth. Investors are also looking ahead to additional AI announcements at Meta Connect. Neutral Sentiment: Meta continues to expand its AI infrastructure. Its planned Petal subsea cable and reported custom CPU work with Arm could improve long-term computing capacity and efficiency, but these projects require substantial capital and will not produce immediate revenue. Negative Sentiment: Execution and spending concerns remain. Meta’s recent EPS missed consensus despite revenue growth, while rising capital expenditures, debt and weaker cash-flow expectations could limit near-term upside after the stock’s large advance. Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s refusal to allow Muse shopping highlights platform friction. Meta is also testing human contractors to complete some Muse calls, raising questions about reliability, privacy, scalability and the cost of delivering the service. Meta testing a human concierge for Muse 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 Stories Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Meta’s Muse Highlights Arm’s Growing Role in AI Infrastructure Oura’s $15.6 Billion IPO Is Betting Investors See More Than a Smart Ring AMD Chips Away at NVIDIA’s AI Throne Is the Fed Playing Chess With Rates—Or Just Behind the Curve Again?
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Senator Investment Group LP cut its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 31.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 91,574 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 42,000 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.9% of Senator Investment Group LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Senator Investment Group LP’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $51,583,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% in the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $22,152,075,000. Corient Private Wealth LP boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 723.1% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 8,801,764 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,957,946,000 after buying an additional 7,732,446 shares during the period. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth $2,948,486,000. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 488.1% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,466,595 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,608,445,000 after buying an additional 4,537,076 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
Positive Sentiment: Muse is gaining significant consumer traction. The agent reportedly surpassed ChatGPT’s early mobile download pace and can handle tasks such as shopping, travel bookings, email and financial-related services. Investors increasingly view Muse as a potential new revenue platform rather than simply another AI feature. Wall Street expects Meta’s AI agent to shape into a new revenue engine Positive Sentiment: Commercial partnerships strengthen the monetization case. Shopify is integrating Shop Pay checkout with Muse, while PayPal is also expected to use the agent. These deals could help Meta capture value from AI-powered commerce and create a platform for outside developers and services. Shopify Brings Shop Pay Checkout Solution to Meta’s Muse AI Agent Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised their targets. Jefferies increased its Meta price target to $875 from $710 and maintained a Buy rating, while Bank of America reaffirmed Buy with an $810 target. Analysts cited Muse’s early adoption and potential to add a new earnings stream. Jefferies Adjusts Price Target on Meta Platforms Positive Sentiment: The core advertising business remains supportive. Meta’s latest reported revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, with stronger ad pricing helping offset slower impression growth. Investors are also looking ahead to additional AI announcements at Meta Connect. Neutral Sentiment: Meta continues to expand its AI infrastructure. Its planned Petal subsea cable and reported custom CPU work with Arm could improve long-term computing capacity and efficiency, but these projects require substantial capital and will not produce immediate revenue. Negative Sentiment: Execution and spending concerns remain. Meta’s recent EPS missed consensus despite revenue growth, while rising capital expenditures, debt and weaker cash-flow expectations could limit near-term upside after the stock’s large advance. Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s refusal to allow Muse shopping highlights platform friction. Meta is also testing human contractors to complete some Muse calls, raising questions about reliability, privacy, scalability and the cost of delivering the service. Meta testing a human concierge for Muse Insider Activity In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,196 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $550.61, for a total value of $5,063,409.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,260,343.46. The trade was a 41.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 1,559 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $558.00, for a total value of $869,922.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,957 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,092,006. This represents a 44.34% 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 81,758 shares of company stock worth $51,214,020. 13.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders. Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.6% Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $736.59 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.74, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $609.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $610.57. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $520.26 and a 12-month high of $770.60. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $7.14 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 27.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Monday, September 21st will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 21st. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.91%.
Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of research firms have recently commented on META. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $640.00 to $820.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $796.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $700.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $800.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, September 16th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $886.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $789.63.
Get Our Latest Analysis on Meta Platforms
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 Meta’s Muse Highlights Arm’s Growing Role in AI Infrastructure Oura’s $15.6 Billion IPO Is Betting Investors See More Than a Smart Ring AMD Chips Away at NVIDIA’s AI Throne Is the Fed Playing Chess With Rates—Or Just Behind the Curve Again? 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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Sigma Planning Corp reduced its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 36,147 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 3,232 shares during the quarter. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $20,361,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $22,152,075,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.6% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 21,038,035 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,036,491,000 after buying an additional 2,673,494 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 18,200,469 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,013,948,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046,715 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.
Meta Platforms Stock Performance Shares of META stock opened at $736.59 on Wednesday. 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 cap of $1.88 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $609.53 and a 200-day moving average of $610.57. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $520.26 and a one year high of $770.60.
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 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $7.14 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 27.93 earnings per share for the current year. Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 21st will be given a dividend of $0.525 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 (DPR) is currently 7.91%.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $810.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Weiss Ratings lowered Meta Platforms from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $785.00 price target (down from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Friday, September 11th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $886.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $789.63.
Read Our Latest Report on META
More Meta Platforms News Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
Positive Sentiment: Muse is gaining significant consumer traction. The agent reportedly surpassed ChatGPT’s early mobile download pace and can handle tasks such as shopping, travel bookings, email and financial-related services. Investors increasingly view Muse as a potential new revenue platform rather than simply another AI feature. Wall Street expects Meta’s AI agent to shape into a new revenue engine Positive Sentiment: Commercial partnerships strengthen the monetization case. Shopify is integrating Shop Pay checkout with Muse, while PayPal is also expected to use the agent. These deals could help Meta capture value from AI-powered commerce and create a platform for outside developers and services. Shopify Brings Shop Pay Checkout Solution to Meta’s Muse AI Agent Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised their targets. Jefferies increased its Meta price target to $875 from $710 and maintained a Buy rating, while Bank of America reaffirmed Buy with an $810 target. Analysts cited Muse’s early adoption and potential to add a new earnings stream. Jefferies Adjusts Price Target on Meta Platforms Positive Sentiment: The core advertising business remains supportive. Meta’s latest reported revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, with stronger ad pricing helping offset slower impression growth. Investors are also looking ahead to additional AI announcements at Meta Connect. Neutral Sentiment: Meta continues to expand its AI infrastructure. Its planned Petal subsea cable and reported custom CPU work with Arm could improve long-term computing capacity and efficiency, but these projects require substantial capital and will not produce immediate revenue. Negative Sentiment: Execution and spending concerns remain. Meta’s recent EPS missed consensus despite revenue growth, while rising capital expenditures, debt and weaker cash-flow expectations could limit near-term upside after the stock’s large advance. Negative Sentiment: Amazon’s refusal to allow Muse shopping highlights platform friction. Meta is also testing human contractors to complete some Muse calls, raising questions about reliability, privacy, scalability and the cost of delivering the service. Meta testing a human concierge for Muse Insider Buying and Selling In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 3,240 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.06, for a total transaction of $2,002,514.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 6,271 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,875,854.26. The trade was a 34.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $650.28, for a total value of $13,005,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 244,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,003,864.48. The trade was a 7.56% 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 81,758 shares of company stock worth $51,214,020 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.
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 Meta’s Muse Highlights Arm’s Growing Role in AI Infrastructure Oura’s $15.6 Billion IPO Is Betting Investors See More Than a Smart Ring AMD Chips Away at NVIDIA’s AI Throne Is the Fed Playing Chess With Rates—Or Just Behind the Curve Again?
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Long-term investing isn't about chasing trends; it's about finding quality businesses that can compound over time. This holds true even in today's era of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is changing the business landscape, and the companies that best adapt and use AI to their advantage will likely be the biggest winners over the next decade.
Meta Platforms (META -0.63%) and Alphabet (GOOGL -1.07%) (GOOG -0.99%) are two of the best-positioned companies in this regard. They both have built-in advantages that should help them continue to compound over time.
Here's why these two growth stocks should return sensational results over the next decade.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Meta Platforms Few companies have been able to use AI to drive growth in their core business, as Meta has. In fact, renowned investor Bill Ackman has called Meta "one of the clearest beneficiaries of AI."
Meta arguably has the best digital advertising platform on the planet, and it is set to soon surpass Alphabet for the No. 1 spot. AI is making Meta even more powerful. The company is fueling higher user engagement by using AI to improve its content recommendation algorithm.
At the same time, Meta is seeing better ad monetization, as the AI tools it is providing advertisers are improving targeting and conversions. This is leading to increased ad loads and higher ad prices, fueling revenue growth.
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Meta also has huge potential with AI agents. The company recently introduced its new Muse AI agents, which can perform a variety of tasks for users, including making appointments, planning and booking trips, and shopping on a user's behalf. This opens up a whole new, large potential revenue stream for the company.
While it will have paid tiers for power users, the biggest revenue opportunity will come from affiliate and transaction fees. It will also give the company a significant opportunity to automate and monetize Facebook Marketplace, as Muse agents can find products, negotiate prices, and even arrange pickup times.
With 3.6 billion daily active users and a strong AI flywheel, Meta's business is poised to continue compounding at a strong clip over the next decade.
2. Alphabet Alphabet is a favorite of legendary investor Warren Buffett, who is a huge advocate of compounding businesses. Its advantage is its most complete AI stack and a large distribution edge.
Alphabet's core business remains Google Search, although that has morphed into search/discovery with AI. The company holds a dominant position in this area due to three distinct advantages.
The biggest is distribution, as Google has become the gateway to the internet through its ownership of the Chrome browser, Android smartphone operating system, and a revenue-sharing deal with Apple to be the default search engine on its devices.
Meanwhile, Alphabet's two-sided ad network is one of the most powerful in the world, capable of handling campaigns from small local merchants to global powerhouses. Finally, the wealth of data the company has collected over the years is unmatched. Meanwhile, it is now using its Gemini models to power AI tools and features to help drive query and revenue growth.
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Alphabet's biggest edge, though, is its custom AI chips called Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). The company developed these chips more than 10 years ago and has built its entire hardware and software stack around them. This gives Alphabet a huge cost advantage, saving it both in training its own models and in running AI inference. It also gets payback on its AI infrastructure investments in half the time as with GPUs, bringing it down to less than a year. Alphabet has even started selling TPUs directly to Anthropic, opening up another revenue stream.
With the most complete AI stack and built-in advantages, Alphabet has a durable, compounding business set to outperform over the next decade.
Meta's latest consumer AI product is sending such big shockwaves through the market that it's even inflaming a long-time rivalry in the brokerage business between 55-year old investing giant Charles Schwab, and Robinhood, an icon of the post-Covid trading boom among young investors.
Shares of Schwab fell 6% Tuesday, touching the lowest since early July and the stock is now down more than 8% since Meta announced Muse. Meanwhile, Robinhood's stock was higher, notching anotheryear-to-date high. In May, the company launched AI agents that can now trade and manage portfolios on behalf of users.
Shares of sprawling wealth management business LPL Financial Holdings dropped 7% Tuesday, financial services firm Raymond James Financial shed 3.5 percent, and Interactive Brokers slipped 1% as the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) lost 2% and is now down 6 percent from highs made earlier this month. Higher interest rates may not be helping.
It's not the first time an AI product has jostled the group – in February, the same group of stocks dropped when tech platform Altruist said its platform `Hazel' can create tax-planning strategies for individuals and advisors. Schwab stock recovered some in the months after – LPL has not.
"Schwab's an interesting animal," said Jimmy Lee, founder and CEO of The Wealth Consulting Group, a Las Vegas-based advisor that oversees $8 billion in assets. "To us in the advisor space they're kind of neutral and figuring out how best to protect their market share. I don't think Meta brings a lot of competition from the custodian perspective because it's not like Altruist's platform, but there is a lot of disruption that's going to happen among financial middle-men that charge fees for billing, reporting, trading, etc."
Meta's AI assistant says it won't trade for users or give financial advice, but when queried with how it might mimic the work of a financial advisor or broker, lists abilities including tracking investments and progress towards goals, as well as analyzing how portfolio holdings fit together.
Charles Schwab corp, YTD
Last week, Schwab Advisor Services, the company's platform for registered investment advisors, announced it is working with Anthropic to create Claude for Financial Advisors. In May, the company launched an AI tool that includes tailored analysis from the company's research arm. Representatives from Schwab did not respond to a request for comment. Robinhood reps declined to add to this story.
Robinhood's bounce on Tuesday brings its stock to a 10% rally on the year after dropping more than 40% in the first three months. The retail-focused brokerage, which also offers digital banking and advisory services, is up 1200 percent the past three years. Schwab stock is up 83 percent and the XLF is up 65 percent.
"AI and tokenization threaten to dismantle the frictions that legacy financial intermediaries have historically monetized," Piper Sandler analyst Patrick Moley wrote in a note in April. "Schwab's reliance on low-yielding sweep cash puts it squarely in the crosshairs."
Bets increase against SchwabJudging by options-market flows around the stocks on Tuesday, the threat to Schwab may be a lasting one.
Options volume in Schwab was more than five times the average, with nearly twice as many puts bought vs. calls, Cboe LiveVol data show. The most popular contract to buy was the 90-strike put expiring mid-January, a bet the stock drops another 13% the next three months. To be sure, there was one big counter-trade sale of the Oct. 16 95-strike puts.
Robinhood, YTD
What's arguably most notable is in Robinhood options, sentiment was the opposite – traders bought twice as many calls as puts with more than 80 percent of the $95 million in premium traded tied to calls. The most heavily traded contract was the 125-strike call expiring on Friday.
"Gen Z and millennials gravitate towards platforms like Robinhood and Public which is why those platforms ship products so quickly," Gav Blaxburg, founder of Wolf Financial, a popular online trader enclave, said in a call. "Robinhood has built enough trust rebuilding its brand since Gamestop and they're allowing agents to trade literally everything."
SummaryMeta Platforms, Inc. is rated a Strong Buy due to the launch of its AI agent Muse, which leverages Meta’s full-stack integration and vast distribution.META’s vertical integration—owning data centers, AI models, and user platforms—creates unique cost and distribution advantages over AI competitors.Agentic commerce via Muse is expected to unlock new revenue streams beyond advertising, with partnerships like Shopify and PayPal already in place.I project 20%+ annual revenue growth and expanding net margins, supporting a robust 34% annualized return profile for META and a potential $6.2 trillion market cap by 2030.Looking for option income ideas that focus on capital preservation? I offer this and much more at my exclusive investing ideas service, Option Income Builder. Learn More » Kenneth Cheung/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images
A month or two ago, a friend of mine sent me an invite code to an application called Instinct.
I didn't know what the app did at first, but after setting it up with
11.42K Followers
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of META either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. 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 Platforms (META -0.63%) released the Muse app earlier this month. It's the company's answer to ChatGPT, and it came alongside a nationwide TV ad.
That ad features Muse automatically performing various tasks, such as scheduling events, operating smart home features, and registering a user's child for fall sports. The ad also featured Muse automatically researching and ordering school supplies.
Not everyone liked the commercial, with some saying it made the product appear too similar to Amazon's Alexa and didn't fully capture what makes Muse different. However, the success of the Muse app and the rapid shift to national TV ads featuring it indicate a major shift is taking place at Meta Platforms.
Image source: Getty Images.
The company may finally be diversifying beyond selling ad space Meta Platforms' biggest strength and weakness is its online advertising business. Revenues from the advertising segment reached $59.3 billion in the second quarter, a 27.5% year-over-year improvement. Online advertising is a high-margin business, so it may be hard to perceive that as a problem.
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The issue is that Meta Platforms has absolutely no fallback option if online advertising slows down. Ads provide more than 97% of its total revenue. Meanwhile, rivals like Amazon and Alphabet diversified their revenue streams beyond their core offerings more than a decade ago.
Muse might be the big hit that lets Meta Platforms diversify and accelerate its revenue growth without relying exclusively on ads. Muse got more downloads in its first 12 days than ChatGPT did during the same stretch. Meta Platforms already has 3.6 billion daily active users across its social media platforms, offering a great foundation for Muse to become mainstream.
How Muse will make money While Muse won't break even right away, its monetization model is already in place. The company makes money when users upgrade their subscriptions for access to expanded token capacity and additional features. However, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted that there were additional ways for Muse to become a moneymaker.
In an interview on Tiff in Tech's YouTube channel, Zuckerberg laid out how Muse could make money as an intermediary for e-commerce transactions. He believes that Muse will help people spend and save money, and Muse will receive a small cut in those cases.
It won't show up meaningfully in financial results for multiple years, but Meta Platforms has a healthy enough balance sheet to wait that long. It's similar to how Amazon and Alphabet waited multiple years for their cloud infrastructure platforms to become profitable. Now, those assets are driving meaningful growth for both companies.
Meta Platforms is trying to achieve the same thing with Muse. Significant app downloads and a quick push toward national TV ads show the level of commitment Meta Platforms is giving Muse.
Meta Platforms is leading the shift from "tell me" to "just do it" Other AI models can answer questions and provide product recommendations, but Muse is at the forefront of the "just do it" wave. Instead of asking for product recommendations, you can have Muse research products and complete orders for you.
Consumers can provide their email addresses, credit card numbers, and other details that let the AI agent initiate these orders. However, Muse will always ask for a user's permission before finalizing an order. In other words, Muse is set up so you won't end up with a surprise bill.
This shift can turn Muse into a household name despite how crowded the industry has become. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok are some of the many AI models competing for people's attention. If Meta Platforms maintains its technological lead on other AI models and forces its way to the mainstream, it can completely shift Meta Platforms' long-term prospects.
Investors have noticed. The stock has surged by more than 30% over the past month. That rally also came as a major lawsuit against Meta Platforms ended with a judgment far less severe than expected, to the point that it should have no serious impact on the company's revenue.
Meta Platforms' stock has been stuck in the mud for most of the year, but the Muse news sparked a rally that put the stock firmly ahead of the S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.00%) year to date. That trend is likely to continue in the long run as Muse gains more market share.
Conflict near the Strait of Hormuz is keeping crude oil at $90 ahead of Wednesday's trading session, but as Kevin Green points out, the VIX is just above year-lows. He talks about the disconnect he sees between the two and the bullish backdrop it creates for markets, so long as recent market strength broadens.
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Alexandr Wang has a tongue-in-cheek social media strategy. Bloomberg/Getty Images Take cover: Alexandr Wang is reloading the "tweet cannon."
Meta's chief AI officer has fired off more than 300 posts on X since the company launched Muse, its personal AI agent, on September 8.
Many contain memes. Some take jabs at AI rivals. Almost all are about Muse.
"muse is the first ai for the ai skeptics out there!" reads one post.
Wang might be right. The agent, which can autonomously perform tasks like booking flights, shopping, and sending emails, recently soared to the top of the App Store charts and has earned rave reviews.
During that period, Wang ramped up the digital bombardment, posting more than 100 times on X over five days, with each post typically getting at least tens of thousands of views.
Often, they read like a victory lap after Meta fell behind in the race to build the most powerful AI model, despite racking up tens of billions of dollars in capital expenditure and spending over $14 billion to acqui-hire Wang from Scale AI.
Alex Schultz talks about Meta Ray-Ban Glasses and its 'big breakthrough' with the SuperBowl
"you might say we're… outpacing the frontier," he wrote in response to a news story that Muse recently had more daily active users in the US and Canada than ChatGPT did over the same period.
In the days after Muse's launch, many of Wang's posts promoted other tech figures' positive messages about trying the agent: "your hottest friend is already on muse," Wang wrote while resharing a post from Stripe CEO Patrick Collison.
Another of Wang's go-to posts is hyping everyday users who share how Muse has saved them money or helped them with admin. (Don't just take Wang's word for it: Business Insider's Katie Notopoulos found it helpful, but it failed on some tasks.)
And this week, Wang has promoted a flurry of partnerships with Shopify, PayPal, Expedia, and Instacart that connect their services to Muse — a move that could spark the next App Store-style boom.
another one!!
instacart 🤝 muse
this integration will make it really easy to get all your groceries using muse, and ensure you and your family are always prepared 🥕 https://t.co/wHSqZ4QxKS
— Alexandr Wang (@alexandr_wang) September 22, 2026 But perhaps the most frequent staple of Wang's social media barrage is Meta's Muse mascot, a cute plushy that looks vaguely like a smiling sloth and has a star role in an increasingly cheeky marketing strategy.
Leading from the rearWang has woven the Muse mascot into many pop culture references, from Sam Altman and Dario Amodei's awkward non-hand holding to the much-memed promo for an upcoming Elizabeth Holmes documentary.
In recent days, though, things got … weird.
Then they got weirder.
And weirder still.
As Wang puts Muse's best cheek forward, he's also finding time to fire his self-described "tweet cannon" at rivals in the personal-agent war.
"Muse absolutely crushes Insect," Wang wrote earlier this month, referring to Instinct, the invite-only personal agent that became popular among Silicon Valley techies and venture capitalists.
Wang has also taken aim at the logos of other AI companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, for what he sees as their resemblance to another part of the human anatomy.
Method in the Muse madnessWang is not the first tech figure to deploy a non-corporate social media strategy. Google's Logan Kilpatrick's posts on X have made him a one-man hype machine for Gemini, while Nikita Bier, X's former head of product, is a prolific poster.
While both reference internet culture and use memes, Wang has arguably taken it up another notch.
"It doesn't feel like any other senior tech exec out there, which I think is the whole point," Nick Braund, the founder of PR and comms agency Words+Pixels, told Business Insider.
"Wang is attempting to insert Muse into meme culture by getting as far away from corporate jargon as possible," he added. "It feels like his PR strategy is being anti-PR."
While Wang has gone tweet wild on X, he's been notably quieter on Threads, the Meta-owned X rival: he has not posted since Muse's launch.
Wang appears to be aware that his digital blitz, which frequently includes the phrase "Muse madness," is getting noticed.
"Someone today said i had the best social team for the muse launch," Wang posted over the weekend. "bruh this is all me out here rawdogging these tweets. i don't let the corposlops near my tweet cannon."
"What a generational run of posting," one X user wrote to Wang.
"tfw you realize an entire lifetime of being terminally online was preparation for this moment," Wang replied.
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Robert Scammell You're currently following this author! Click to unsubscribe from email alerts.
Robert Scammell is a senior editor working at Business Insider's London bureau, overseeing the tech team's coverage of companies such as Google, OpenAI, SpaceX, and Meta.He is also the editor of Vibe Mode, Business Insider's weekly newsletter on all things AI coding. Before joining Business Insider, Robert was the editor of the tech publication UKTN.
Muse's normie-friendly design is the playbook for how Meta can win at AI
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Senior Correspondent covering technology and culture
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, dropped hints about Meta's AI agent playbook way back in April. Chris Graythen/Getty Images With Meta's Muse agent shooting to the top of the App Store charts, I'm reminded of something Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year.
"There's a lot of agents out there," Mark Zuckerberg told investors on an April earnings call. "There aren't that many that I would want to give to my mother."
The Meta CEO said the company was willing to tinker until it had an AI agent "more polished and dialed and easy" than the competition. Something that "just works." Something that would pass his "mother" test.
Nearly a half a year later, that strategy is paying off, with Meta's Muse agent overtaking ChatGPT as the top free AI app.
This is the playbook for how Meta wins at AI — not by having the best frontier models, but by having the most successful consumer app and pushing it out to its billions of existing users.
Alex Schultz talks about Meta Ray-Ban Glasses and its 'big breakthrough' with the SuperBowl
People seem to like Muse! Like, really like it! I've been playing around with it myself, and am pleasantly delighted by some of the tasks I've asked it to do (to be fair, it's also failed a bunch of tasks I asked it to do).
It's debatable whether Muse is the most powerful or "best" agent. Instinct is a similar product that I know one of my colleagues was really enjoying, and it seems to have a growing fanbase. Others have noticed how similar Muse is to OpenClaw, which appeals to more technically proficient users and kicked off the personal AI agent craze.
we built muse from scratch, but it is definitely heavily inspired as a product by openclaw. After I used openclaw in january I bought hundreds of mac minis for the MSL team and lots of us fell in love with using openclaw (and other personal agents). @steipete is a genius and his…
— Nat Friedman (@natfriedman) September 21, 2026 But neither Instinct nor OpenClaw has the sheer power of Meta's massive user base, where it can cross-promote its apps. Nor do they have Meta's knack for creating a normie-friendly, easy-to-use consumer app.
That last part is the key.
Say what you want about Meta, but you have to concede they are very good at making apps so easy to use and popular that your mother (or even grandmother) can — and loves — to use. They make apps that are so easy and compelling to use that their biggest criticism is that their apps are addictive and people — kids, even! — spend too much time using them.
Meta hasn't been winning the AI race in terms of creating the most cutting-edge models, so far. Up until now, they've failed at creating the most popular consumer-facing AI apps. They launched celebrity-voiced chatbots early on (a John Cena one now lives in infamy because it was found to engage in lewd talk with what it was told was an underage user), as well as the ability to create your own character chat on Instagram. Their AI video app, Vibes, was a huge flop compared to OpenAI's Sora 2 at launch.
But finally, Muse is the thing that clicked. It's impressive enough it's won over the tech crowd, but easy enough to use that regular people are playing around with it. The biggest hurdle of an AI agent for normies is figuring out what kinds of things you can ask it to do — and nudging people in the right direction for how to start using a product is something Meta is great at.
It didn't need to be the most bleeding-edge AI; it didn't even need to be the first AI agent app. It just needs to be the easiest to use that gets the job (mostly) done.
As one former Googler summed it up: "User experience matters. Design matters. Making products easy to use matters."
Here's Meta's play right now: Let Anthropic and OpenAI be the ones to worry about AI accidentally killing humanity and all the burdens, regulations, and misery that go along with that. There's little upside in rolling in the muck with the doomers or the accelerationists. Instead, Meta will capture the normies who just want something to help manage their inbox — and all the spoils that come with that.
It's not hard to imagine how Muse could become lucrative for Meta — a company that mainly runs an ad business — as a shopping app. Amazon has already blocked it, but other services like PayPal and Shopify are partnering with Muse, happy to let Muse connect shoppers through their payments.
Meta has the money and political capital to get massive data centers built. They have the ability to aggressively promote their internal apps, like Threads, to their billions of users.
It's the game plan Zuckerberg described to Wall Street back in April, while bemoaning how complicated the AI agent OpenClaw was to install and set up.
"I think if you had something like that, that worked quite a bit better than those systems and was easy enough that people could just get, then I think you go from having something that hundreds of thousands or millions of people are going to use to something that is going to be addressable to billions of people."
And eventually, when you win billions of users, you win the war.
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Katie Notopoulos You're currently following this author! Click to unsubscribe from email alerts.
Katie Notopoulos is a senior correspondent at Business Insider who writes about technology, business, and culture. Previously, Katie was a tech reporter at BuzzFeed News and has written for The Atlantic, The New York Times, Fast Company, and MIT Technology Review.
Meta has disrupted more than 3.7 million scam-linked accounts, pages and other content this year based on information provided by Singapore police, the company said Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump said his officials had “very good” talks with Iranian envoys in New York, reviving hopes for a diplomatic off-ramp hours after he threatened to “annihilate” the country's ruling regime. Shares of major banks, insurers and online travel agencies slid on Tuesday on investor fear that tools like Meta's personal AI agent could disrupt businesses that benefit from so-called consumer inertia, the tendency to keep buying something out of habit even when a better alternative exists.
Meta Platforms (META.O) is expected to unveil new smart glasses at its annual Connect conference on Wednesday, including a pair without cameras, amid growing privacy concerns about AI devices that can be used to record people without their consent.
The social media giant is the early leader in the race to put AI devices in the hands of customers, with sales of the smart glasses it co-developed with EssilorLuxottica (ESLX.PA) surging last year to more than 7 million. That has given Meta a dominant share of a market where it mainly faces competition from Chinese companies such as RayNeo and Xiaomi (1810.HK).
But the devices' growing popularity has sparked concern globally about their ability to covertly record people, with several UK restaurants, pubs and theaters restricting their use.
The glasses have also drawn lawsuits, including a proposed class action in California alleging Meta misled users about privacy protections and that human annotators training its AI viewed and labeled footage of people's private moments, including changing clothes, after the recordings were uploaded to its servers.
Meta, which contests the allegations and plans to defend itself, is expected to unveil the glasses without cameras in two styles, one called Clubmaster and another named Burbank, according to the Information.
Analysts expect the company to also launch a new version of its Meta Ray-Ban glasses that come with cameras, as well as a thinner and lighter pair of augmented-reality glasses that reports say is code-named Phoenix.
The potential Phoenix launch comes days after Snap unveiled new partnerships and software details about its $2,195 Specs augmented-reality glasses that launch later this year.
Some analysts are, however, doubtful that removing cameras alone could allay the privacy concerns about AI devices that can still record audio. Losing the camera may also blunt demand as capturing photos and video ranks among the devices' most popular features.
"Microphones and audio collection could trigger similar concerns, although likely to a lesser degree," said Linda Sui, founder of Smart Analytics Global, a market research firm.
"More importantly, removing the camera from glasses that also lack a heads-up display will create a product differentiation challenge. Consumers may ask why they need smart glasses rather than Bluetooth earbuds if the primary experience is limited to voice interaction, microphones and speakers."
Digitalbox PLC (AIM:DBOX, FRA:RLXB), the mobile-first digital media group behind The Daily Mash and The Tab, believes the upheaval sweeping digital media presents significant opportunities for nimble players, and says a strong balance sheet leaves it well placed to seize them.
The AIM-listed company, which ended June with £2 million of cash, is pressing ahead with a major expansion built around original video and online creators.
Its new Digitalbox Creator Network, spanning The Tab Student Network and a growing Entertainment Network, comprises more than 200 creators expected to produce around 500 original videos a month by October.
The push is designed to broaden Digitalbox's revenue base beyond traditional publishing and open up direct deals with advertisers, tapping trusted editorial brands, original video and more than 30 million social followers.
The strategy is a response to a turbulent half.
After a strong start to the year, the group was hit from the second quarter by changes to Meta's algorithms that favoured video-led creator content, denting audiences for publishers reliant on social distribution.
Digitalbox cut costs in response while accelerating its investment in video.
Chief executive James Carter said the company had moved quickly, reducing costs while building an increasingly compelling proposition for advertisers across editorial, social, video and creator-led content.
The board remains cautious on audience volumes and expects second-half revenue to fall by a similar percentage to a year earlier, having already flagged in August that full-year figures would come in below market expectations.
On the numbers, first-half revenue slipped 7% to £1.7 million, with the Youth division up 17% and Humour up 10%, offsetting a 23% drop in Entertainment.
Adjusted earnings swung to a small loss, from a £289,000 profit, and the group took a £634,000 impairment charge against its Entertainment assets.
Even so, gross margin improved to 83%, and cash generation turned positive.
Meta closed up 11% on Monday on early traction for its Muse AI agent. Interactive Brokers ran its own numbers and found Meta was the most sold stock on the platform that day: customers took profits into the rally and rotated into Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft instead.
Jefferies sees $10.8 billion in new revenue if the AI agent converts users to paid tiers Summary
Analysts turned bullish on Meta as its Muse agent drew 2.8 million downloads in 12 days, with Jefferies lifting its target to $875 on the monetization case.
Meta Platforms META shares rose 1.37% intraday, extending a run that has added more than $200 billion in market value since its Muse AI agent launched September 8, as Wall Street repriced the app as a potential new revenue engine. Muse, which can send emails, book travel, and complete transactions on a user's behalf, is free at the basic tier with subscriptions at $20 and $100 a month. It has drawn 2.8 million downloads in its first 12 days, and on a comparable-launch basis outpaced ChatGPT's early curve, according to Apptopia data.
Jefferies estimated that if Muse reaches 1 billion users by the end of 2027 and at least 3% convert to paid tiers, it could generate $10.8 billion in annualized revenue, and raised its price target to $875. The firm also noted that before Muse, investors had largely dismissed Meta's ability to field a consumer AI agent, favoring Alphabet instead, a read that followed Meta's stumbles with its Llama 4 models last year. JPMorgan called Muse potentially the most widely used consumer AI app since ChatGPT, crediting Meta's distribution reach and a free tier that lowers the trial barrier.
Disclosures I am/we currently own positions in the stocks mentioned, and have NO plans to sell some or all of the positions in the stocks mentioned over the next 72 hours.
Meta's new personal AI agent shattered download records and erased $200 billion in skepticism in a single session, but the cash flow statement tells a very different story about what comes next.
Meta (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) closed Monday at $741.25, an 11.43% single-session move that added roughly $200 billion in market value on the debut of Muse, the personal AI agent from Meta. CNBC reported that Muse downloads are surging and drew comparisons against ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude. The comparison matters because Muse launched on both iOS and Android in two countries, while the ChatGPT debut it is being measured against was iOS-only but global.
The question is whether opening-week adoption justifies repricing a company expecting $130 to $145 billion in 2026 capital expenditures against a product with no disclosed revenue model. The market has front-run a proof point that has not yet been proven.
Muse Launch Data and Its Limits The earnings call offered a better signal: daily interactions with Meta AI rose 60% after the assistant was rebuilt and integrated with Muse Spark. Downloads are a single decision. Daily use is repeated, and only the second underwrites an assistant business.
Q2 capital expenditures reached $30.12 billion, up 82% year over year, and free cash flow collapsed to $784 million from $8.55 billion. Operating margin compressed to 31% from 43%.
Where Meta Sits Versus Microsoft and Alphabet Muse is Meta’s first consumer answer to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), whose OpenAI partnership monetizes through Azure and Copilot, and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which is pushing Gemini through Search and Workspace.
Meta’s structural edge is distribution: 3.60 billion daily active people across the Family of Apps. Its structural gap is enterprise sales and cloud billing rails, which Microsoft and Alphabet already own.
All that hyperscaler capex still has to be powered, cooled, and networked by somebody, which is the whole thesis behind a free report we put together on seven AI infrastructure suppliers that aren’t the chipmakers. On our podcast in May, our analyst framed the split plainly: “People are seeming to say they don’t trust Meta’s CapEx, but we’re also seeing all of the hyperscalers… increase their capex.” Monday’s session was the first day that skepticism cracked.
Bull and Bear Case for META Stock The bull case is that Muse validates the distribution thesis. Wall Street analysts carry an average target of $755.28 with 47 buy and 8 strong-buy ratings against zero sells, pricing a compounding adoption curve on a forward P/E of 20x.
The bear case sits in the cash flow statement. Q2 EPS of $6.18 missed consensus by 14.42%, ending a six-quarter beat streak, and Reddit’s fastest-growing post on the news was “FULL PORT META PUTS $180K” on wallstreetbets.
The deciding variable is retention. If Muse’s daily active users hold through the Connect event on September 23rd and a paid tier converts at a meaningful rate, Monday’s move looks early. If daily engagement fades once launch novelty ends, a $130 billion capex line without matching product cash flow becomes the story again.
In my opinion, Muse is likely to steal massive market share from private AI labs and make it much harder to compete. Muse comes with an extraordinary amount of free compute for new users and a new virtual computer embedded into the agent. For OpenAI and Anthropic to pull this off, they need to spend even more.
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Meta Platforms Inc.'s new artificial intelligence agent, Muse, is ranked the No. 1 free app on the US Apple Inc. iOS App and Google Play stores.Muse was downloaded more than 902,000 times in the six days after Meta introduced it on Sept.
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, XETRA:FB2A, SIX:FB) is winning early traction with its Muse artificial intelligence agent, prompting Bank of America and Jefferies to raise their outlook for the company as adoption and potential monetization come into focus.
Both have maintained 'buy' ratings on Meta Platforms.
Jefferies raised its price target on Meta to $875 from $710, citing what it described as unprecedented consumer adoption of Muse, its monetization potential and improving investor sentiment.
Muse surpassed 2.5 million cumulative global app downloads within its first 13 days, with Jefferies saying it was ahead of comparable launches for Claude and Gemini.
Jefferies said the new price target implies a valuation of 25 times projected 2027 earnings, up from 20 times previously.
Jefferies estimated that, under one scenario, 1 billion users by the end of 2027 and a 3% conversion rate to a $30 monthly subscription would produce 30 million subscribers and $10.8 billion in annualized revenue.
The analyst also pointed to commerce as a potential revenue driver, noting that a rival AI agent had reported early users transacting more than $1,300 a month.
BofA cited positive early user feedback on Muse's practical utility, including its ability to execute multi-step tasks with limited user intervention.
The bank said Muse reached No. 1 in the US iOS App Store's productivity category shortly after its September 8 launch and had a 4.9-star rating across more than 25,000 reviews.
Data from Sensor Tower showed Muse exceeded 300,000 daily downloads and reached approximately 2.5 million cumulative US downloads by September 19, compared with about 1.6 million for Instagram and 3.6 million for ChatGPT over similar periods.
BofA noted that privacy and trust remain considerations for broader adoption, with some reviewers expressing discomfort about granting the agent broad access to personal information.
The bank said monetization of Muse through advertising, subscriptions and commissions was unlikely to be material before 2028, while multiple expansion rather than 2027 estimate revisions could drive Meta's stock performance until then.
Both banks said Meta's substantial computing capacity could support continued Muse adoption.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) stock soared Monday on the strength of the company’s Muse AI Agent rollout. A former hedge fund manager thinks there’s more upside for the stock.
More Meta Stock UpsideMeta shares jumped 11.4% on Monday taking shares to $741.24, adding over $200 billion to the company’s market capitalization.
The stock has surged in valuation since July 31, when former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson recommended the stock to investors after earnings. The thesis was based on a drop in the shares amid capex concerns, as well as stock valuation.
While the stock is up 23.5% since that call, Tilson calls Meta his "favorite large-cap tech stock" in a tie with Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN).
"I think Meta has more room to run thanks to the rollout of Muse – a personal AI agent that completed multistep tasks across apps, browsers and devices," Tilson said.
Read Next
Scott Galloway’s Muse ReviewTilson admits he has not yet tried out the Muse AI Agent, but shared a "raving review" given by his friend Scott Galloway.
"The most successful companies have one thing in common: They are time machines. What do I mean by that? They give people time back," Galloway said.
The author calls Muse a "time machine" and says that that app already knows you based on your history with Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, something that would take another company months to build.
Tilson says Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is doing what he promised: building consumer products, including a useful AI offering.
"Galloway has been negative on the prospects for Meta for a very long time, so if he likes the product, it must really be good."
Meta Stock Price ActionMeta stock is up 0.9% to $748.04 on Tuesday versus a 52-week trading range of $520.26 to $770.60. Meta shares are up 15% year-to-date in 2026.
Read Next
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Evercore's top analyst just named Meta his number one pick with a bold price target, but his own timeline for free cash flow recovery quietly signals how much has to go right before the bull case actually pays off.
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Evercore ISI’s Mark Mahaney went on CNBC Tuesday morning and planted a flag on Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction), calling the company’s new Muse AI assistant “the best product coming to market” and making Meta his number one pick with an $860 price target. The call landed the morning after one of Meta’s strongest sessions in over a year, with the stock trading around $739.99 intraday and up 34.66% over the past month.
Mahaney’s math is simple. He wants investors to pay 25 times earnings for “an asset that can grow 30%,” drawing a comparable to Google’s re-rating from 15 to 30 times earnings inside 12 months. On the current 2026 consensus EPS of $31.43, that stretch to $860 requires the market to accept a growth-stock multiple on a business that just posted a very different quarter.
Where the Bull Case Meets the Reported Numbers Meta’s Q2 2026 report, filed July 29, 2026, showed revenue of $60.80 billion, up 27.96% year over year, but net income of $15.85 billion, down 13.57%. EPS came in at $6.18, missing the $7.22 consensus by 14.42% and ending a six-quarter beat streak. Operating margin compressed to 31% from 43% a year earlier, weighed down by $2.40 billion in legal charges and $1.18 billion in severance tied to an 8,000-person headcount cut. Shares dropped roughly 10% the day after the earnings report, from $597 to $527 within an hour of the filing. The 8-K exhibit lays out the full damage.
Mahaney’s 30% figure lines up cleanly with the revenue trajectory rather than earnings. Q1 2026 revenue grew 33.1% and Q2 grew 28%, with ad impressions up 14% and average price per ad up 12%. Family of Apps daily active people hit 3.60 billion. That is the top line story feeding the bull case.
Free Cash Flow Problem Mahaney Named Himself The tension in Mahaney’s own thesis is the timeline. He told CNBC that free cash flow “is probably going to turn up in 2028”. Meta’s Q2 free cash flow collapsed to $784 million, down 91.31% year over year, as capex ran $30.12 billion in the quarter, up 82.1%. Full-year 2026 capex guidance was narrowed higher to $130 billion to $145 billion, and full-year expenses were raised to $165 billion to $169 billion. Capex covers Meta’s entire AI infrastructure buildout, including the one gigawatt data center in El Paso, Texas being developed with BlackRock. All of that concrete and silicon has to be powered and cooled by someone, and we profiled seven of the suppliers riding that wave in a free report on the AI infrastructure buildout. Muse is only one product riding on top of that stack.
Muse and the Monetization Menu The product case is real. Since Meta rebuilt its assistant and integrated Muse Spark, the company reported a 60% increase in daily interactions. Business agents are already active with more than 1 million businesses on WhatsApp and Messenger weekly. Mahaney’s monetization framing hits every lever: “Can they put advertising on this? Yes. Subscriptions. Yes. Transaction revenue shares. Yes.” He notes that with 3.6 billion users, “all you need is 1% to sign up for a subscription” to generate roughly $8 billion in revenue.
Reading the Outlier The Street average price target sits at roughly $755, making Mahaney’s $860 an outlier well above consensus. Analyst behavior tells its own story: 2026 EPS consensus has seen 45 downward revisions versus 4 upward in the trailing 30 days. Meta is still down 4.56% over the past year even after this month’s rip. The bull needs Muse to scale before the capex cycle finishes chewing through operating income, which is why 2028 keeps showing up as the punchline. Meta’s investor relations site and the September 23rd Connect event are the next checkpoints to see whether the product velocity Mahaney is buying actually lands.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options: https://bit.ly/2v9tH6D. Muse AI is a game changer for Meta Platforms (META), argues Kevin Hincks, pointing to the chart-topping downloads across app stores.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech at the Meta Connect annual event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, U.S., September 25, 2024. REUTERS/Manuel Orbegozo Meta Platforms (META.O) CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to attend a White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, alongside several other technology executives, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing a person familiar with the planning.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Early adopters of Meta’s Muse have been speculating that the reason the AI works so well is because it’s OpenClaw under the hood, wrapped in a more consumer-friendly package. Meta now says those comparisons aren’t entirely off-base. According to an X post by Nat Friedman, head of product at Meta’s Superintelligence Labs (MSL), Muse was “definitely heavily inspired as a product by OpenClaw.”
However, he clarified that Muse itself was “built from scratch.”
Friedman, the former GitHub CEO who joined Meta last year alongside Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, said that the team at Meta had fallen in love with OpenClaw and wanted Muse to be “something like OpenClaw” that could be scaled to billions of people.
Because OpenClaw is an open source project, it wouldn’t be surprising that Meta looked to it for inspiration, especially given its breakout success, which prompted OpenAI to snatch up its creator earlier this year. However, it speaks to Meta’s well-known playbook that involves taking promising products, then copying their best features — something it did most notoriously with Snapchat’s invention of the stories format.
Friedman’s statement on X was made in response to a post that had gone viral among the AI crowd, where Ansh Nanda, an AI app co-founder, claimed that “Muse is LITERALLY OpenClaw for normies.”
Nanda’s X post had included a conversation with Muse, where the AI agent said that the similarity between its own system files and those belonging to OpenClaw was not just “a coincidence” but rather “a match.”
Soon, this thread (and X more broadly) began blowing up as others shared their own comparisons and findings. For instance, one person pointed out that Muse also had a SOUL.md file, the plain text configuration file (written in a simple formatting language called Markdown) that defines an AI agent’s personality, communication style and tone, values, behavioral boundaries, and expertise.
A third noted that the files weren’t just named the same between the two assistants; their content was almost entirely the same.
Following his X post, Friedman also responded to a question about why Muse had copied the exact file names that made up the AI agent’s workspace and had “nearly identical content” for the SOUL.md file. Instead of disputing these claims, Friedman simply replied that “we thought that Peter [Steinberger, OpenClaw’s creator] got those things exactly right.”
“We built Muse from scratch, but it is definitely heavily inspired as a product by OpenClaw. After I used OpenClaw in January, I bought hundreds of Mac minis for the MSL team, and lots of us fell in love with using OpenClaw (and other personal agents), Friedman said on X. (TechCrunch has corrected Friedman’s punctuation for readability.)
“@steipete [Peter Steinberger] is a genius, and his harness was pioneering from the jump. I think a lot of people were inspired by it. Our goal with Muse was to build something like OpenClaw that we could make safe and secure and easy to use and scale to billions of people,” he wrote.
The Muse app has been something of a hit so far, having recently hit No. 1 on the U.S. App Store. Data indicates that it’s now outpacing ChatGPT’s launch when the platforms and market availability are compared directly.
Reached for comment, a Meta spokesperson pointed to Friedman’s statement, saying the company had nothing more to add beyond that.
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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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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of META either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. 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.
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Meta Platforms has delivered staggering growth, but whether a $10,000 stake can actually double depends on which of three very different futures plays out over the next five years.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) is the kind of mega-cap that makes the “what if it doubles?” question worth asking.
Shares recently changed hands around $665.75 at the time the current forecast was modeled, with an intraday quote of $737.07 after a 10.8% move on the session. For a $10,000 stake, the interesting question is how close Meta can get to a double under the modeled scenarios, and over what time frame.
Base Case: What $10,000 in Meta Could Become by 2031 The doubling hook aligns most naturally with the five-year horizon. In the base case, the model projects Meta shares reaching $1,244.61 by September 2031, a total return of 86.95%.
That would turn a $10,000 investment into roughly $18,695, just shy of a true double. Model confidence is flagged as high, with a buy recommendation and a one-year predicted price of $821.36.
The five-year scenarios are the anchor for the doubling question. The one-year targets, shown for context, do not model a double on any path.
Scenario Table: $10,000 in Meta at the Modeled Horizons Five-Year Horizon (September 2031) Scenario Target Price Total Return $10,000 Becomes Bull $1,236.39 85.71% $18,571 Base $1,244.61 86.95% $18,695 Bear $867.60 30.32% $13,032 One-Year Horizon (September 2027, Illustrative) Scenario Target Price Total Return $10,000 Becomes Bull $857.46 28.8% $12,880 Base $821.36 23.37% $12,337 Bear $715.29 7.44% $10,744 Analyst consensus lines up with the shorter-window view. The Street’s average price target sits at $755.28, drawn from 8 strong buys, 47 buys, 7 holds, and 0 sells.
Why the Model Sees Upside Three drivers do most of the work behind the target. First, AI-powered ad optimization is already showing in the numbers. Meta reported Q2 2026 revenue of $60.8 billion, up 28% year over year, with ad impressions up 14% and price per ad up 12%. Advantage Plus solutions have reached a $75 billion annualized run rate.
Second, new revenue streams are opening up. Meta Business Agents are now used by more than 1 million businesses weekly, and daily interactions with Meta AI jumped 60% after the Muse Spark integration.
As one investor discussion framed it, “meta platforms is growing 33%” in part because AI is improving the core product itself. Fresh momentum came Monday with a Muse AI Agent release that helped ignite a broader chip stock rally.
Third, valuation still has room. Forward P/E sits at 20, and the model’s weighted framework uses a forward EPS assumption of $40.08, aggressive versus the 2027 consensus of $33.94 but within the analyst high end.
Risks That Could Sink the Projection The bear case carries real weight. Capex guidance was raised to $130 to $145 billion for 2026, and free cash flow collapsed to $784 million in Q2 from $8.55 billion a year earlier. Reality Labs lost $19.2 billion in FY2025 alone.
Youth-related U.S. litigation with trials scheduled in 2026 could produce material losses, and EU pressure on Less Personalized Ads remains an overhang. Recent estimate revisions skew negative: 45 downward revisions to 2026 EPS in the trailing 30 days, versus 4 upward.
Bottom Line for the $10,000 Stake Across the five-year modeled scenarios, a $10,000 investment in Meta ranges from roughly $13,032 in the bear case to about $18,695 in the base case, close to but not quite a true double.
Over one year, the same stake ranges from $10,744 to $12,880. These are model scenarios, not guarantees, and this article is a projection, not investment advice.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
