Meta Spikes 7% as Wells Fargo Lifts Price Target to $796 Ahead of Connect; Alphabet Nudges Higher, Microsoft Holds Flat

Muse and Connect Take Center Stage

Meta Platforms launched Muse earlier this month, describing it as a personal agent that performs tasks rather than answering questions. The tool can send emails, book travel and fill out forms, and it keeps working after a user closes the app.

Muse is rolling out in the United States across iOS, Android, the web and WhatsApp, with support on Meta Platforms’ AI glasses planned. Most functionality is meant to stay free, with subscription plans layered on for heavier usage of the assistant.

The bull case for Meta Platforms is straightforward. An assistant that books and sends and fills in forms sits closer to commerce than a feed does, which changes what Meta Platforms can sell to advertisers and to end users alike. That is a wider surface for monetization than a pure ranking algorithm.

The complication is that Wells Fargo’s raised target arrived before Connect rather than after it, so buyers of Meta Platforms are paying for usage numbers the company hasn’t disclosed yet and that the event itself will either support or undercut. Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein has been skeptical that Muse will reach a scale that matters financially, citing paid-conversion challenges, competition and consumer trust concerns.

Alphabet Rises, MSFT Holds Flat

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock is at $354.94, up 2% in Monday morning trading, the closest peer to Meta Platforms in consumer-facing AI assistants. GOOGL shares are moving with the sector today rather than on a company-specific development, which underscores that the agentic-AI theme isn’t being repriced as a group.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock is at $493.66, essentially unchanged 0.03% in Monday morning trading. MSFT shares aren’t participating in the re-rating this morning, which reinforces the read that the tape is pricing this as a Meta Platforms story rather than a broad verdict on agent-style software.

What to Watch Next

The next data point for Meta Platforms is Connect itself, where usage disclosures around Muse and details on the latest models can either back Wells Fargo’s raised target or undercut it. Meta Platforms is also on the calendar to report Q3 2026 results on October 28, so the fundamental scoreboard isn’t far behind the event itself.

Investors can watch for whether Meta Platforms delivers concrete usage numbers at Connect, since the raised target from Wells Fargo arrived before the event rather than after it. Traders may want to check for whether Meta Platforms holds recent levels into the close, given how quickly the stock has repriced this month.

Given the risk that Connect underwhelms on Muse metrics, holders sizing new positions in Meta Platforms should keep their exposure measured and stagger entries around the event rather than committing full weight before it. That approach lets owners of Meta Platforms participate in the upside case while limiting damage if the numbers disappoint the bar Wells Fargo has now set.

Got $1,000? Before You Buy MSFT, Read This

If you have cash sitting in your account right now, give this two minutes. After more than two decades of helping investors beat the market, our top analysts at 24/7 Wall St. put together a definitive report on the Top 10 Stocks To Buy Today. And MSFT wasn’t one of them.

They combed the entire market. It’s not 10 ideas, not 10 stocks everyone is talking about, it’s what their research points to as the 10 best stocks to buy right now, and it’s free. Read more here and see which stocks made the list –>>

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.