Hunterbrook discloses Meta short as data shows Muse growth slowing and websites block the agent

Hunterbrook Capital disclosed that it was short META on Oct 9, alongside a Hunterbrook Media report arguing that adoption of Meta's Muse AI agent is decelerating. Using TickerTrends data, the report says weekly Muse downloads fell 8.1% week over week in the seven days ending Oct 7, to about 165,000 a day, and that net daily user additions slowed to roughly 74,000 in the first week of October, a 62.4% drop from the 198,000 average in late September. The data shows slowing growth, not shrinking usage: Hunterbrook's own figures put worldwide daily users at 2,730,919 on Oct 6, a series high. Meta shares traded less than 0.3% lower after the publication.

Distribution is the second pressure point. AMZN has pushed back on Muse: per GeekWire, it cut the agent off from shopping on Amazon.com on Sept 20, saying Meta never agreed to the access and that Muse does not identify itself while browsing. Jefferies tested several hundred US e-commerce, travel and reservation sites and found about one-third block Muse and another third challenge or restrict it, though Meta has sanctioned partners including WMT, BBY and W. Separately, Futurism, citing a New York Times report based on anonymous insiders, says Mark Zuckerberg pushed the launch through internal safety objections.

User counts differ by vendor: Barchart says Muse is close to 2 million daily users without naming a source, Similarweb data cited by Yahoo Finance showed 2.182 million on Oct 5, and TickerTrends shows about 2.73 million. A headline citing a $900+ target refers to 24/7 Wall St.'s own model target of $906.46, not a Street consensus. SentiSense data shows 58 analysts with an average target of $799.34 (range $580 to $1,050) and a Strong Buy consensus. Barchart reports J.P. Morgan raised its target to $920 and Tigress Financial to $995, while Bank of America expects no meaningful Muse income before 2028.

What to watch: whether daily user additions stabilize, whether more sites block or sanction the agent, and Meta's next earnings report on Nov 4, 2026.