Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Up 2.7% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) traded up 2.7% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $668.60 and last traded at $665.60. 19,199,952 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 13% from the average session volume of 16,977,756 shares. The stock had previously closed at $648.03.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Goldman Sachs reiterated its bullish view, citing the commercial rollout of Meta’s Muse AI agent and a recent legal settlement as potential catalysts. The firm expects additional upside over the next year. Why is Meta stock gaining in premarket today
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts pointed to strong advertising momentum in the second quarter, including a 14% increase in ad impressions and a 12% rise in average ad prices. One analyst rated META a Buy with an $817 price target, while its forward PEG ratio remains below sector and historical averages. Meta Platforms: AI Spending Is Starting To Pay Off
• Positive Sentiment: Meta and Alphabet benefited from investor rotation toward established AI companies after concerns that frontier-AI development may slow. Investors may view Meta’s large user base, advertising business and AI investments as more immediately monetizable than speculative AI infrastructure plays. Why Google and Meta Stocks Are the Big Winners From the Latest AI Concerns
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports highlighted the scale of Meta’s AI data-center investment and the broader expansion of AI-related debt issuance. Meta’s strong balance sheet reduces immediate financing concerns, but the spending cycle increases scrutiny of capital returns and execution. AI-Related Debt Sales Are Near $500 Billion
• Negative Sentiment: Meta faces a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that its unreleased smart glasses’ reported “NameTag” facial-recognition feature improperly used Facebook and Instagram data. The case could create legal costs and privacy-related reputational risk. Meta Faces Lawsuit Over Smart Glasses Facial Recognition
• Negative Sentiment: Meta’s Oversight Board urged the company not to replace professional fact-checking with Community Notes, adding pressure around content moderation and platform governance. Oversight Board asks Meta not to replace fact-checking with Community Notes

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on META shares. Susquehanna lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $650.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $700.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $890.00 to $730.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Bank of America reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $788.88.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $601.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $608.74. The stock has a market cap of $1.70 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). The company had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $7.14 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 21st will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 3,240 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.06, for a total transaction of $2,002,514.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 6,271 shares in the company, valued at $3,875,854.26. This represents a 34.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing 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 3,348 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total transaction of $2,012,047.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,498 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,708,013.06. This represents a 26.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 60,183 shares of company stock valued at $36,673,495 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of META. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 56,957.6% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,878,304,587 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,058,030,191,000 after purchasing an additional 1,875,012,642 shares in the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its stake in 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. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $22,152,075,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.6% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 21,038,035 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,036,491,000 after buying an additional 2,673,494 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc develops technologies that help people connect, communicate and build communities online. The company’s principal products include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Threads, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and digital communication.

Meta generates most of its business through advertising displayed across its family of apps. It also develops artificial intelligence technologies, business messaging tools and hardware and software through its Reality Labs division, including Quest virtual- and mixed-reality devices and related experiences.

The company was founded as Facebook in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and was renamed Meta Platforms in 2021 to reflect its broader focus on building the metaverse.