Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Purchased by RDST Capital LLC

RDST Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 59.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 99,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 37,225 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up 5.5% of RDST Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. RDST Capital LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $57,001,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in 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 valued at $132,015,115,000 after acquiring an additional 7,269,279 shares in the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% in the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $69,502,379,000 after purchasing an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $59,963,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,395,763 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,734,628,000 after purchasing an additional 878,396 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,112,735,000 after purchasing an additional 310,947 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $785.00 price target (down from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. Wedbush lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $671.00 to $595.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $640.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $810.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, June 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have issued a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $789.95.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.75, for a total transaction of $303,875.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,443 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,092,483.25. This trade represents a 12.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 837 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.85, for a total transaction of $508,770.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 6,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,823,376.50. This represents a 11.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 39,325 shares of company stock valued at $23,979,087. 13.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, exceeding Wall Street expectations, while advertising demand, impressions, pricing and AI-powered recommendations remained strong. Instagram time spent also grew by double digits. META’s Q2 Earnings Miss Estimates, Revenues Rise Y/Y on Ad Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts retained bullish ratings despite reducing price targets. UBS, Baird, Citi, Truist and other firms still see substantial upside, suggesting the selloff may have improved Meta’s valuation appeal if advertising growth continues. Analyst price-target updates
• Positive Sentiment: Management said AI is improving ad performance, content recommendations and enterprise products, while new applications and potential AI-agent businesses could create additional monetization opportunities. META Q2 Earnings Call Highlights AI Expansion Strategy
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta is exploring ways to lease or sell excess computing capacity, including possible enterprise AI opportunities. This could generate revenue from infrastructure investment, but the company must balance external sales with its own model-development needs. Zuckerberg lays out Meta’s AI capacity dilemma
• Negative Sentiment: Adjusted earnings were $6.18 per share, well below estimates near $7.2 and down from $7.14 a year earlier. Legal expenses of about $2.4 billion and severance costs of roughly $1.2 billion contributed to the miss, but operating expenses also rose substantially.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta maintained an aggressive AI investment plan, forecasting 2026 capital expenditures of $130 billion to $145 billion. Operating cash flow of $31.9 billion was almost entirely consumed by capital spending, leaving approximately $784 million after capex. Meta Generated $31.9 Billion in Operating Cash Flow Last Quarter
• Negative Sentiment: Future lease obligations, largely tied to AI data centers, rose 53% in three months to $279 billion. Investors are questioning whether advertising growth and future AI services will generate adequate returns on this commitment. Meta’s future AI data center lease obligations
• Negative Sentiment: Third-quarter revenue guidance of $61 billion to $64 billion was viewed as soft relative to the $63.2 billion consensus, reinforcing concerns that spending and margin pressure may persist. Reality Labs also posted a loss exceeding $4.6 billion.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta’s weakness contrasted with Microsoft’s strong Azure and Copilot results, which gave investors clearer evidence that AI spending is producing returns. This comparison intensified the market’s skepticism toward Meta’s less-defined AI monetization timeline. Meta tanks nearly 9%, Microsoft jumps 8% as the AI trade splits Big Tech

Meta Platforms Trading Down 8.0%

NASDAQ:META opened at $539.03 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $602.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $623.44. The company has a market capitalization of $1.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.81% and a net margin of 29.83%.The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $7.14 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.4 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

Meta Platforms Profile

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.