BofA Securities Maintains Buy on Meta, $810 Price Target

BofA Securities analyst Justin Post reiterated a Buy rating and $810 price target on Meta Platforms Inc.

(NASDAQ: META) on August 31, 2026.

“Per press reports (e.g. Business Insider, Aug 28), in early September Meta could launch its consumer-focused AI agent, Hatch, to run natively inside of Instagram and WhatsApp.

According to an internal memo, say the reports, Hatch operates through its own virtual computer and can browse Websites and navigate various UIs to perform autonomous tasks for users, enabling it to perform activities such as online purchases, restaurant bookings, form completion, and email/text communication.

The memo describes Hatch as a highly personalized agent that learns user preferences and adapts over time.

Hatch reportedly has stronger memory capabilities than many existing AI assistants, and Meta has said it is considering a subscription-based model for the offering, with premium tiers reportedly priced at up to $200 per month.

Separately, reports indicate Meta is targeting an October launch for its new AI model, code-named Watermelon.

Prior reports suggested the new model has achieved frontier-level performance on certain internal benchmarks, and Hatch plans to integrate Watermelon automation capabilities post launch.We think there is a significant long-term opportunity for consumer agent usage, and we see Meta’s large global user base as a meaningful advantage in driving new product adoption.

However, consumer agentic adoption is still at an early stage, and Hatch will need to be highly functional and differentiated vs OpenAI and Gemini to gain early traction.

Key factors that could impact adoption include the following: (1) Ease of use.

As Meta has indicated in prior earnings calls, Hatch will need to be user friendly (perhaps as easy as using the OpenAI app) to capture broad adoption. (2) Product utility.

Traction will depend on whether Meta can offer sufficient utility and computer/Web ecosystem integration to drive usage and potential switching from other AI platforms. (3) User trust.

Meta will need to ensure potential users that Hatch can be trusted to perform automated tasks.

Also, users have to be confident that use of Hatch will not enable hackers to access their computers or execute transactions. (4) Subscription pricing.

Premium services will need to be at price points that provide consumers strong value vs alternatives, but also provide Meta a return on compute investment (agentic requires significant capacity).”

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