Tech giant Meta Platforms (META) launched a personal artificial intelligence (AI) agent called “Muse” for those who need help with day-to-day tasks. While Muse’s access to personal data raises privacy concerns, Meta says the agent operates in a separate, secure virtual machine, helping isolate private information and prevent it from being shared across platforms.
With Meta’s widespread reach, Muse can be a worthy rival to Google’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. The social media giant is also entering a market that Morgan Stanley estimates has a staggering $30 trillion total addressable market (TAM) for consumer agentic tasks across e-commerce, travel, digital ads, and daily logistics. Moreover, analyst Brian Nowak highlighted that winning the agentic battle requires two things: broad-based distribution and rich consumer data sets, and Meta possesses both.
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Therefore, after this strategic move, it might be wise to keep a close watch on Meta.
About Meta Platforms Stock
Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, Meta Platforms runs a broad portfolio of social media and messaging services, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads. Advertising generates most of its revenue, while Reality Labs focuses on artificial intelligence, smart glasses, virtual reality, and immersive technologies.
Meta has recently intensified its AI investments, expanding computing infrastructure and developing AI-driven features across its platforms. Although the company continues to benefit from strong revenue growth and higher user engagement, increased spending on data centers and servers has pressured profitability. Investors are also monitoring Reality Labs’ losses and assessing whether Meta’s growing AI investments can generate substantial long-term returns. It has a massive market capitalization of $1.67 trillion.
Investors are concerned that Meta’s AI spending is rising faster than its earnings and cash flow. That is why META stock is down 13% over the past 52 weeks, while it has been down 1% year-to-date (YTD). It reached a 52-week low of $520.26 on March 27 but is up 26% from that level. The stock has also been highly volatile over the past year.
Meta’s price-to-earnings (non-GAAP) ratio of 20.98x is higher than the industry average of 13.34x.
www.barchart.com Meta Platforms’ Q2 Results Show Strong Revenue Growth as AI Spending Weighs on Profit
For the second quarter of fiscal 2026, Meta’s revenue increased by 28% year-over-year (YoY) to $60.80 billion. This growth was led by the Family of Apps segment, which rose 28% to $60.37 billion. Family daily active people (DAP) was 3.60 billion on average for June 2026, indicating an increase of 3% YoY, while ad impressions delivered across its Family of Apps increased by 14% YoY.
However, Meta’s profitability has come under pressure as costs and expenses rose 55% from the prior-year period to $42.03 billion. Capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, were $31.08 billion for the quarter as it pursues aggressive AI spending. Meta’s quarterly EPS declined by 13% YoY to $6.18.
Wall Street analysts have mixed feelings about Meta’s future earnings. For the current fiscal year, EPS is projected to decrease 5.1% annually to $28.17, followed by a 21.4% growth to $34.19 in the next fiscal year. Moreover, analysts expect the company’s EPS to decline 12.7% YoY to $6.33 for the current quarter.
What Do Analysts Think About META Stock?
Analysts are now showing a mixed but stable stance on META stock. Wedbush analysts reiterated a “Neutral” rating and a $595 price target this month.
Last month, analysts at Rosenblatt maintained a “Buy” rating and raised the price target from $883 to $886, citing Meta’s $18 billion settlement related to kid and teen safety issues, which they saw as a big win. Rosenblatt said the legal threat behind discussion of a potential “tobacco moment” for Meta and the broader social-media industry has largely faded. The firm added that investors can now refocus on Meta’s advertising growth and its AI capital expenditures.
Truist Securities analysts, on the other hand, lowered META’s price target from $770 to $763 while maintaining a “Buy” rating on the stock. Truist said the agreement marks progress toward resolving the matter and provides a modest positive catalyst for the stock. However, the firm does not expect the settlement to materially affect user engagement or revenue.
Meta has been in the spotlight on Wall Street, with analysts awarding it a consensus “Strong Buy” rating. Of the 55 analysts rating META stock, a majority of 46 analysts have rated it a “Strong Buy,” two analysts suggest a “Moderate Buy,” while seven analysts are playing it safe with a “Hold” rating. The consensus price target of $754.61 represents a 16% upside from current levels. The Street-high price target of $1,000 indicates a 53% upside.
www.barchart.com On the date of publication, Anushka Dutta did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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