Meta Stock Jumps as Wall Street Bets on AI Momentum
Meta Platforms (META) shares opened up 6.23% on Monday, September 21, 2026, as investors positioned ahead of the company’s annual Meta Connect event, set for September 23–24 at its Menlo Park headquarters. The rally followed a notable bullish call from Wells Fargo, which raised its price target on the stock to $796 from $640 while maintaining an Overweight rating. The new target implies roughly 19% upside from Friday’s close of $665.75.
The analyst cited recent AI model releases and early traction for Meta’s new Muse assistant, saying the company “now has a story to tell.” According to TheFly, Wells Fargo expects investor attention at Connect to center on usage metrics for Muse and Meta’s latest models. META was among the top trending tickers on Stocktwits during premarket trading, with the stock also benefiting from broader strength in large-cap technology equities.
Muse Takes Center Stage
Meta launched Muse on September 8, describing it as a personal AI agent capable of performing tasks rather than simply answering questions. Powered by the Muse Spark model, the assistant can send emails, book travel, fill out forms, and continue working after a user closes the app. It is rolling out in the U.S. via iOS, Android, muse.ai, and WhatsApp, with AI-glasses support planned. CEO Mark Zuckerberg framed Muse as an agent that understands users’ goals and works continuously on their behalf. Most functionality will remain free, with subscription plans offering heavier usage.
Meta has also updated its underlying models. Muse Spark 1.3, released earlier this month, improves performance on long-running agentic and coding tasks. Analysts are now watching whether Muse can scale into a meaningful financial contributor. Oppenheimer’s Jason Helfstein estimated Meta would need about 115 million paying subscribers at $20 per month to generate substantial revenue, a figure that underscores both the opportunity and the execution risk.
Why It Matters: AI Spending Under Scrutiny
The stakes for Meta Connect are high. The company has invested heavily in AI infrastructure, and investors are eager to see concrete product features and revenue streams emerge from those expenditures. Meta’s latest annual revenue reached $200.97 billion with net profit of $60.46 billion, but its second-quarter 2026 results showed pressure: Family of Apps operating income fell 6.3% year over year to $23.39 billion, while free cash flow plunged 90.8% to $784 million. Advertising remains the lifeblood, contributing 97.6% of Q2 revenue.
That dependence on advertising makes any service interruption a potential concern. Over the weekend, an independent tracker detected Facebook problems across several countries, though Meta’s business-status dashboard showed no affected services across 17 product groups. The discrepancy highlights the challenge of distinguishing consumer-facing issues from business-product incidents. With advertising revenue averaging about $27.2 million per hour in the second quarter, even brief outages can interrupt impressions and campaign management.
A Consumer AI Push
Meta’s AI ambitions have historically lagged in the consumer space, where competitors like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude have captured mindshare. Muse represents a renewed push to leverage Meta’s massive consumer reach—3.60 billion daily active people in June—into agentic AI leadership. The Motley Fool’s Lou Whiteman expressed skepticism, noting that Meta was never going to win the enterprise and that consumer AI must be “insanely good” for people to pay. Still, the potential for Muse to transform shopping and daily tasks is significant, and early product momentum has given the company a narrative to sell.
Broader Implications: A Pivotal Moment for Meta
Meta Connect has become a bellwether for the company’s ability to translate R&D into products that resonate beyond its core advertising business. This year’s event arrives amid ongoing legal and regulatory scrutiny over youth safety and biometric privacy, but investors appear focused on fundamental execution. The combination of positive catalyst expectations, strong digital ad momentum, and favorable analyst commentary has attracted institutional capital.
Beyond Meta, the event could shape sentiment around the broader AI trade. If Muse usage metrics impress, it may bolster confidence in Meta’s open-weights strategy and enterprise messaging monetization tools. If they disappoint, questions about the return on AI capital expenditures will intensify. For now, Wall Street is betting on the former. Analysts maintain buy ratings with an average price target of $757.38, and the stock’s pre-Connect surge suggests high hopes. Whether Meta can deliver a story that satisfies investors—and users—will be revealed in the coming days.
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