Meta's Muse Hits Top 3 in App Store. Why Wall Street is Split on the Stock.

Dow Jones
Yesterday

Meta Platforms' consumer artificial-intelligence agent has arrived, and Wall Street isn't quite sure if it will be a major win for the stock.

The Facebook parent on Tuesday announced its personal AI agent, which can automate a variety of tasks for users. Muse can shop online, plan travel, purchase tickets, schedule appointments, manage calendars, and send emails and messages.

Muse has already gained strong early traction and reached as high as the number three spot in the U.S. app store on its second day of availability, according to J.P. Morgan.

This was one of the reasons J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth on Thursday upgraded Meta to Overweight from Neutral, with a price target of $820 up from $640.

Meta stock rose 0.2% to $654.82 on Thursday after advancing 6.6% in the previous session. J.P. Morgan's new price target implies around 25% from current trading levels.

Anmuth noted that Meta stock still has "meaningful upside potential," with the company in the early stages of releasing frontier models and AI-driven products beyond advertising.

Wall Street in recent months had started to take notice of how AI will change the way consumers conduct online shopping and Meta's Muse could be a major turning point for adoption.

"Frontier models are at the core of Meta's product and monetization pipeline over a multi-year period, and its path toward superintelligence," Anmuth wrote.

The analyst added that while monetization isn't the near-term priority for Muse, Meta has "meaningful opportunities across a take-rate/commission model and subscriptions" to generate profit from the AI agent.

Not all of Wall Street is convinced.

Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein on Wednesday noted the Muse agent is unlikely to be a "game changer" for Meta as the firm reiterated its Perform rating on the stock.

"We remain skeptical of the financial benefits," Helfstein wrote.

The analyst wrote he is unsure if enough consumers will pay for the service long term as there could already be consumer subscription fatigue from Alphabet's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT. Helfstein added that U.S. consumers continue to be distrustful of Meta when it comes to data breaches and the sharing of passwords.

"As such, we do not see Muse as useful without full password sharing for e-commerce/online services, while new Siri via Gemini and next version of ChatGPT could support such activity," Helfstein noted.

What is known is that Muse has arrived. What remains is whether it will be a long-term catalyst for Meta stock. Wall Street isn't sure just yet which way it will go.

 

At the request of the copyright holder, you need to log in to view this content

Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.

Most Discussed

  1. 1
     
     
     
     
  2. 2
     
     
     
     
  3. 3
     
     
     
     
  4. 4
     
     
     
     
  5. 5
     
     
     
     
  6. 6
     
     
     
     
  7. 7
     
     
     
     
  8. 8
     
     
     
     
  9. 9
     
     
     
     
  10. 10