Meta stock (META) traded at a new all-time intraday high Thursday, following a developer event that put its artificial intelligence ambitions on display. Shares rose as high as $577 after market open before edging down 0.7%, or around $564, mid-morning.
At Meta Connect 2024 on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Meta’s newest AI model, Llama 3.2. The tech giant also revealed its new “Orion” augmented reality glasses, as well as its latest Ray Ban smart glasses and mixed-reality Quest headset.
Meta has raced to catch up with competitors in the AI space — fellow Big Tech firms like Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) as well as the startup and AI leader OpenAI. And while it’s not as popular as ChatGPT, Meta claimed in April that its AI has an equivalent of 185 million weekly active users, close behind ChatGPT’s 200 million.
Meta released an AI model, Llama 3.1, this summer, which it claimed could outperform OpenAI’s models in several areas. Llama 3.2 is another stride forward for Meta as it looks to take on OpenAI and other AI players. It’s Meta’s first open-source model that can process images, charts, graphs, and text, and it will enable developers using Llama 3.2 to build more complex applications.
The company said Llama 3.2 is competitive with OpenAI’s GPT4o-mini and outperforms Google’s AI model Gemma by some metrics. And its AI assistant available on Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Facebook can now speak in the voices of celebrities including Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key, and Kristen Bell.
Zuckerberg said Meta had “reached an inflection point in the industry” in which its AI model, Llama, is “starting to become something of an industry standard.”
Analysts contend that Meta is well-positioned among its competitors. “We believe Meta Connect reflected Meta’s ambitions to be one of the leading AI companies and to shape the industry,” wrote JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth in a note to investors Thursday morning.
“Mark Zuckerberg showcased Meta's AI future at Meta Connect leaving us more bullish on Meta's consumer & enterprise AI opportunities,” wrote Jefferies analysts. “On the enterprise, Llama is becoming a serious contender and we see momentum building with its new multimodal capabilities.”
Bank of America analysts on Thursday raised its price target on the stock to $630. JPMorgan expects Meta shares to rise even higher, to $640, while Jefferies reiterated its price target of $600. The average Wall Street forecast for Meta's stock price over the next 12 months is a bit lower at $583, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates. Some 88% of Wall Street analysts covering the stock recommend buying it.
But it may take a while for Meta to reap the full benefits of its AI innovations. Jefferies analysts noted a “potential multi-year lag between investments and revenue” but said they are "confident in Meta's proven ability to successfully scale & monetize new products."
Meanwhile, Meta’s costly Reality Labs division, which works on its metaverse products, continues to lose the company billions of dollars. The team’s hefty spending has cost the company $50 billion so far, and JPMorgan analysts project Reality Labs will lose Meta another $23 billion in 2025.
Meta may not have fully monetized its AI advancements just yet, but its moves in the AI space have certainly boosted its stock. Meta is part of the "Magnificent Seven" Big Tech stocks, which have rallied to unprecedented price levels over the past year. Meta stock is up by nearly 91% over the last year, including over 60% in 2024.
Laura Bratton is a reporter for Yahoo Finance.
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