Applied Finance Capital Management LLC Grows Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Applied Finance Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 16.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 66,114 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 9,122 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 2.8% of Applied Finance Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $37,826,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of META. Keybank National Association OH grew its position in Meta Platforms by 15.7% during the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 133,798 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $88,319,000 after purchasing an additional 18,169 shares during the period. WMS Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $876,000. Diversified Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co. now owns 84,059 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $55,487,000 after buying an additional 3,336 shares during the last quarter. Consolidated Investment Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 61.2% in the fourth quarter. Consolidated Investment Group LLC now owns 7,900 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,215,000 after buying an additional 3,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $132,015,115,000 after buying an additional 7,269,279 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is reportedly in early talks to lease computing power to Anthropic in a potential deal worth up to $10 billion. Investors view that as a possible new revenue stream that would help Meta monetize its AI infrastructure and validate demand for its computing capacity. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Meta also unveiled its newest AI model, Muse Spark 1.1, and the company is reportedly considering a broader cloud push. Together, those moves reinforce the idea that Meta can turn heavy AI spending into products and services that generate returns. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive on Meta’s earnings outlook, with Erste Group raising its FY2027 EPS estimate and maintaining a Buy rating. That adds to the bullish case heading into the next earnings report. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: A federal judge declined to block Meta from laying off workers who filed an AI discrimination lawsuit. The ruling removes an immediate legal obstacle, but the underlying claims over alleged bias in AI-driven job cuts still create headline risk. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Meta is also facing scrutiny from employees over AI-assisted layoffs, with allegations that its tools discriminated against protected groups. That could keep legal and reputational pressure on the stock. Article Title

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total transaction of $1,268,023.68. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $681,890.56. This trade represents a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total transaction of $4,769,642.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $251,641.62. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 39,503 shares of company stock valued at $24,241,859. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $767.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $865.00 to $766.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $805.00 to $780.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 1st. Arete Research set a $735.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Benchmark began coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $830.45.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.8%

Shares of META opened at $646.01 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.63 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.48, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $520.26 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $603.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $627.00. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The business had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $6.43 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.