Meta Unleashes a New AI Weapon. Wall Street Sees Huge Upside for META Stock

On Wednesday, Meta's stock price surged more than 5% following the company's unveiling of Muse, an AI assistant. Analysts on Wall Street are optimistic about the standalone chatbot's potential impact. Mizuho Securities analysts, in a client note, believe Muse represents the start of a significant product cycle for Meta, which is currently not reflected in the stock's valuation.

The firm has assigned an Outperform rating to the stock and set a $750 price target. KeyBanc Capital Markets analysts have rated the stock as Overweight with a price target of $780, expressing their belief that the market still undervalues Meta's AI positioning and product development.

Muse is designed to mimic the way people naturally communicate, allowing users to interact with it through conversation in the Muse app or directly within WhatsApp. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted the platform's emphasis on privacy and security during a video message, stating that the tool has a Secure Credential Store to protect users' passwords and credit card information.

Users are also notified before Muse performs sensitive actions such as making payments or sending messages. Zuckerberg emphasized that Meta's encryption measures are modeled after the secure communication system of WhatsApp, ensuring that even the company cannot access users' conversations. Despite Meta's stock having recovered most of its losses from earlier this year, the year-to-date performance has been relatively modest, with a decline of around 1%.