Meta’s New AI Agent Could Be the Missing Piece for META Stock
Just a month ago, Meta Platforms (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared in a 6,500-word manifesto that everyone should have a free personal agent powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to help them with everything from relationships to work and hobbies. And Zuckerberg wants Meta to supply them.
The company recently made a big step in that direction by launching Muse AI. Meta says the agent can work on a user's behalf as it interacts with apps, learns, adapts, and actually does work that the user requires.
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"It doesn't just answer questions, it actually does the work. 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 in an announcement posted on Sept. 8.
The launch of Muse answers a central question that has faced Meta since Zuckerberg laid out his vision in August. Plus, it's getting good reviews from Goldman Sachs, with one analyst recently maintaining a "Buy" rating and a $725 price target for META stock, calling the Muse AI launch a catalyst.
Meta is a dominant social media company that operates some of the most popular platforms in the world, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads, and WhatsApp. The company boasts 3.6 billion people that use at least one of its apps each day.
However, META stock has been a disappointment so far this year, up only 1% year-to-date (YTD). Part of that has to do with the same concern facing many Big Tech companies, massive capital expenditures on servers, chips, memory, connectivity, and the construction of data centers capable of training and running AI. Meta is projected to spend between $130 billion and $145 billion on capex in 2026, and the company spent $31.08 billion in just the second quarter.
Meta's struggle to grow its share price is only tempered by the valuation. The forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is a relatively reasonable 24.4 times right now, and in-line with the five-year mean.
Meta is rolling out Muse AI on iOS, Android, and on a website called muse.ai, plus it's available on the WhatsApp platform. The company says that users will choose which apps Muse can connect to and how much access it gets; it will be able to do anything from reading and sending emails to making purchases.
Goldman Sachs' sentiment and price target are roughly in line with analysts' expectations. Based on 54 experts with coverage, META stock has a consensus "Strong Buy" rating on Wall Street and a mean price target of $758.26, which is even higher than Goldman Sachs' target. That average price target represents potential upside of 14% from current levels.
