Meta Q3 Preview: Muse Put Company in Spotlight, Will Financials Support a Rally?

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) will report third-quarter financial results after the market closes on Wednesday. Analysts expect the Facebook parent company to report third-quarter revenue of $63.36 billion, up from $51.24 billion a year earlier, according to Benzinga Pro. Meta has topped revenue estimates for more than 10 consecutive quarters. Earnings are expected to fall to $5.89 per share from $7.25 a year earlier. Meta has beaten earnings estimates in nine of the past 10 quarters, missing in the most recently reported second quarter. Read Also: We Asked ChatGPT, Grok and Claude for 1 Stock to Buy This Week. No One Picked Tesla. Muse: ‘A Game Changer’ Tech analyst Dan Ives expects Meta to monetize its 3.5 billion-user base thanks to the early success of the Muse AI agent that Meta recently launched. “I think it’s a game changer,” Ives told CNBC earlier. “Investors discounted Meta and [CEO Mark] Zuckerberg” and the billions of dollars they were spending, he added. Ives also says the Muse AI assistant helps average users by making artificial intelligence more accessible via Meta’s apps (i.e., Facebook and Instagram). Former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson recently highlighted Meta stock in a daily newsletter, calling the stock his "favorite large-cap tech stock" tied with Amazon.com. "I think Meta has more room to run thanks to the rollout of Muse – a personal AI agent that completed multistep tasks across apps, browsers and devices," Tilson said. Tilson said Zuckerberg is delivering on his promise: building consumer products, including a useful AI offering. Here are some of the recent analyst ratings on Meta stock and their price targets: Rosenblatt: Maintained Buy rating, with price target of $886 Morgan Stanley: Maintained Overweight rating, raised price target from $775 to $820 JPMorgan: Maintained Overweight rating, with price target of $920 Citigroup: Maintained Buy rating, raised price target from $800 to $895 Guggenheim: Maintained Buy rating, raised price target from $700 to $850 Key Items to Watch After a string of double beats, Meta’s second-quarter adjusted earnings per share missed estimates. Analysts and investors will be looking for earnings to get back on track while maintaining its long-running streak of beating revenue estimates. In the second quarter, Meta reported higher ad impression rates and more ad impressions year over year. Growth in both categories will be key again for the company. Investors and analysts will be watching closely to see how Muse performs and how that success translates into revenue generation and monetization. Zuckerberg said that AI was accelerating in the second quarter and highlighted his optimism about future results. That time may be here now. Expenses will be another area to watch, with the company previously narrowing its expenses to a higher range after second-quarter results. Price Action Meta stock is down 1.7% to $693.23 on Tuesday versus a 52-week trading range of $520.26 to $779.82. It’s also down 6.6% over the last month, while shares are up 6.5% year-to-date in 2026. Read Also: Earnings Volatility Watch: Bloom Energy and Other 11 Stocks Are Priced For Double-Digit Swings Photo: Erlin Diah / Shutterstock