Meta Stock Soars More Than 10% as Wells Fargo Lifts Target to $796 and Muse AI Tops Apple's US App Store

Meta stock rose more than 10% in intraday trading ahead of Wednesday's Meta Connect conference after Wells Fargo raised its price target to about £596 ($796) and the Muse AI app topped Apple's App Store, according to the report.

The higher target and Muse's chart position follow last year's AI model delays and questions about Meta's infrastructure spending. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has since rebuilt the company's AI lab, with its recent launches forming the basis of Wells Fargo's assessment.

Wells Fargo Raises Its Meta Stock Target

Analyst Ken Gawrelski increased his target from about £479 ($640) in a note to investors. He pointed to recent launches, including Muse Spark and the Muse assistant, as evidence that Meta 'now has a story to tell' about its AI capabilities and services.

The note connects the revised target with progress in bringing AI products to market. Gawrelski's assessment covers both models and an assistant, focusing on what Meta has launched following its earlier development difficulties.

The top ranking concerns the Muse AI agent app, while Muse Spark is among the company's model offerings. Meta now has several models within its Muse AI family. The distinction is between the underlying AI offerings and the assistant available to users.

The report does not specify which country's App Store chart Muse topped, how many downloads it recorded or how long it held the leading position. The ranking therefore establishes a chart position without supplying a measure of sustained usage or revenue.

Wells Fargo's target is also separate from the price at which the shares traded. It expresses the analyst's valuation expectation, while the gain of more than 10% describes the movement recorded during the session.

A Three-Month Recovery in Meta Stock

Meta's latest rise follows a broader recovery over the past three months, when its shares climbed 30%. Microsoft was the only company in the report's comparison to perform better during that period, advancing 35%.

The longer view is different. Over the past 12 months, Meta shares have fallen roughly 5%, compared with a 38% rise for Amazon and an 11% increase for Google. The recent rebound has not erased the decline measured across that full period.

For shareholders, those figures describe two distinct stretches of trading. Meta has gained ground recently while remaining below its level a year earlier, explaining how a three-month recovery can sit alongside a loss over the longer period.

The latest increase is an intraday figure. A closing price is not given, leaving the reported movement as a snapshot taken during trading. The figures also do not establish how much of that session's rise was already included in the longer comparisons.

Meta Stock Rally Precedes Zuckerberg's Connect Keynote

The products cited by Gawrelski have emerged after changes at the top of Meta's AI operation. Zuckerberg brought in Alexandr Wang, the Scale AI co-founder and former chief executive, to serve as Meta's chief AI officer as he rebuilt the lab.

Last year's difficulties involved both delays to AI models and questions over the company's spending on the infrastructure supporting that work. The leadership overhaul and subsequent launches form the background to the more favourable assessment now set out by Wells Fargo.

The launches address the availability of new products, one part of those earlier concerns. Their financial returns are a separate question. No revenue figures for the Muse offerings or revised infrastructure spending totals are supplied, so the note's emphasis on capabilities does not establish how much income the new products are generating.

The share price rise and the app's ranking precede the conference. Wells Fargo's revised view is therefore based on the recent launches, with Zuckerberg's presentation of upcoming plans still to come.

Zuckerberg is scheduled to deliver Wednesday's Meta Connect keynote, outlining the company's upcoming plans for AI and wearable devices.