Meta Platforms (META) jumped as much as 11% intraday on Monday, September 21, 2026, its biggest one-day move in months, after a major Wall Street price-target hike collided with surging momentum for its new AI agent, Muse, just two days before the company’s Meta Connect conference.
What happened
Meta shares surged from a Friday close near $665.75, touching an intraday gain of over 11% before settling in the 7-9% range by the close, marking the stock’s highest level since February. The move was broad-based: analysts pointed to three catalysts arriving in close succession.
The Wells Fargo price-target hike
Wells Fargo analyst Ken Gawrelski raised his price target on Meta to $796 from $640, a $156 increase, while maintaining an Overweight rating. The firm revised its valuation multiple upward to 25 times its 2027 EPS estimate, citing meaningful progress in Meta’s AI initiatives. According to TheFly, Gawrelski said recent model launches and early Muse traction give Meta “a story to tell” heading into Connect.
Muse: from launch to No. 1 on the App Store
Meta launched Muse in the US on September 8 as a personal AI agent capable of sending emails, filling out forms, booking travel and continuing tasks after the app is closed. It runs on Muse Spark, which Meta describes as its most capable model for this kind of task, and is available on iOS, Android, muse.ai and WhatsApp, with glasses support still to come.
Less than two weeks after launch, Muse reached the No. 1 spot on Apple’s US App Store. Wells Fargo, citing SensorTower data, said US Muse downloads hit a record 264,000 on September 19, with daily active users reaching 448,000 on September 18.
Meta Connect 2026 is two days away
Meta Connect, the company’s annual product event, runs September 23-24. Mark Zuckerberg is expected to deliver a keynote covering Meta’s next AI models and wearable devices. Citi has placed Meta on an upside 90-day catalyst watch ahead of the event and maintained an $800 price target, expecting updates on Muse and Meta’s next-generation AI models.
A Facebook and Instagram outage did not dent the rally
The stock climbed even as Downdetector recorded more than 17,000 outage reports for Facebook and over 5,000 for Instagram overnight, around 9:21 p.m. New York time on Sunday. Reports fell substantially about two hours later, and Meta had not issued a public comment on the incident as of publication. The market’s focus stayed squarely on Muse and the AI narrative rather than the reliability issue.
The valuation context: a 1-year decline, a 3-month surge
The size of Monday’s move is easier to read against the backdrop of the past year. Despite the rally, Meta shares were still down roughly 5% over the trailing 12 months, while climbing about 30% over the past three months. In other words, the recent surge mostly repairs an earlier decline rather than pushing the stock into genuinely new territory, even as it trades near multi-month highs.
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Intraday move (Sep 21) | Up as much as ~11% |
| New Wells Fargo price target | $796 (from $640) |
| Citi price target | $800 |
| Average analyst price target | ~$763.67 |
| Wall Street rating | Strong Buy (38 Buy / 6 Hold / 0 Sell) |
| 3-month change | ~+30% |
| 12-month change | ~-5% |
| Meta Connect 2026 | September 23-24 |
What to watch this week
- Whether Meta shares Muse usage numbers or monetization plans at Connect on September 23-24
- New AI model announcements, since Wells Fargo and Citi both flagged this as a key swing factor
- Any updates on AI glasses and wearable hardware
- Whether the stock holds its recent gains into and after the event, given how quickly it has repriced this month
Key takeaways
- Meta jumped as much as 11% on September 21 on a Wells Fargo price-target hike to $796 and surging early adoption of its Muse AI agent.
- Muse reached No. 1 on the US App Store less than two weeks after launch, with record download and active-user figures cited by Wells Fargo.
- Meta Connect 2026 (September 23-24) is the next catalyst analysts are watching, with Citi and Wells Fargo both positioning ahead of it.
- Despite the rally, Meta remains down roughly 5% over the past year, so this move mostly repairs an earlier decline.
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