Meta Stock Drops Again. What Happened to Its Muse Boost? -- Barrons.com

By Callum Keown

Meta stock was falling to start the week and is in danger of posting back-to-back losses for the first time since mid-August.

The move comes amid broader pressure on AI-related stocks after OpenAI said it has halted training of its latest models. The company said it will resume training "only when we are confident that we have additional safeguards," in place.

Meta's personal AI agent Muse has been a success so far since it launched on Sept.8, jumping to the top of the app store charts and boosting the stock.

The shares have had a great month, rising 32% in September through Friday's close. But after a 3.3% fall on Friday, the stock was down another 4% in early trading Monday.

The initial boost-and a big one at that-looks to be over, raising the question of what comes next.

"From here, we believe investors need to pay attention to likely launches of competing consumer AI agents, particularly from larger platforms like Google and OpenAI," BNP Paribas analyst Nick Jones said.

Jones has a positive rating on the stock and a price target of $855, implying 14% upside to Friday's closing price.

"Muse is expected to monetize through small transaction fees, but we believe long-term monetization remains a question mark for investors," he said in a note late Friday. "We do see a path where advertising could be compelling, despite the decision to avoid ads today," he added.

Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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September 28, 2026 10:00 ET (14:00 GMT)