Meta Platforms (META) stock is up 5% in premarket trading on Wednesday after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Threads is now on par with Elon Musk’s X. Speaking on Alex Heath’s Sources podcast, Zuckerberg said, “Obviously Threads is doing great, and I think it’s actually either bigger than X at this point or it’s like very soon about to be.”
META stock is also getting support from Meta’s launch of Muse, a new personal AI agent built to handle real-world tasks. Yesterday’s launch puts Meta deeper into the AI agent race, alongside OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s (GOOGL) Gemini. Meta is positioning Muse as a tool that can do more than answer questions by taking actions on a user’s behalf.
Meta’s Threads Growth Gets a Boost From Instagram
In June, Meta confirmed that Threads had reached 500 million monthly active users. The update came as the company rolled out new features, including expanded Communities tools and a personalization option called “Your Algo.”
The milestone puts Threads halfway toward the 1 billion users Zuckerberg set as a long-term goal when Meta launched the app in July 2023. Meta has also used Instagram to drive users toward Threads, giving the platform access to Instagram’s roughly 3 billion users. That strategy appears to be helping Threads gain ground on X, which no longer shares regular user figures.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg noted that the two platforms attract different audiences, making it worthwhile for him to stay active on both. He said X remains especially relevant to people working in AI and the broader tech industry. That makes the platform useful for Meta as it looks to engage with those communities rather than walk away from X altogether.
What This Means for Investors
Threads’ growth matters for investors because advertising still makes up the vast majority of Meta’s revenue. Threads’ rapid user growth could give Meta another large platform to expand its ad business over time. The KPI chart below shows how advertising revenue is the major growth driver for Meta.
With 500 million monthly active users, Threads is becoming a more valuable part of Meta’s social media network. If the company can turn that growing audience into meaningful ad revenue, it could create another source of growth for META stock. For now, Threads remains more important as a user-growth story than a major revenue driver.
Is META a Good Stock to Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on META stock based on 37 Buys and six Holds assigned in the past three months. Furthermore, the average Meta Platforms’ price target of $753.08 per share implies 23% upside potential. (See META stock forecast).
