Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) CAO Aaron Anderson Sells 3,240 Shares of Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CAO Aaron Anderson sold 3,240 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 6,271 shares in the company, valued at $3,875,854.26. The trade was a 34.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded down $3.29 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $613.48. The stock had a trading volume of 18,862,702 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,826,875. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $597.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $608.89. The firm has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $520.26 and a 12-month high of $790.80.

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 net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $7.14 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.17 earnings per share for the current year.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta launched Muse, a personal AI agent that can connect with Facebook, Instagram and third-party services to perform tasks such as sending emails, booking travel, shopping and making payments. The product gives Meta a potential new consumer subscription and engagement platform, with free and paid tiers reportedly ranging from $20 to $100 per month. Meta launches AI agent that can access other apps to send emails, make payments
• Positive Sentiment: The release of Muse Spark 1.3, designed for coding and longer-running agentic tasks, is supporting the view that Meta’s substantial AI investment could eventually generate commercial returns. Bank of America reportedly continues to see substantial upside. Meta stock jumps 4% after Muse Spark 1.3
• Positive Sentiment: Meta and Panmnesia proposed a data-center architecture intended to link computing resources across an entire facility, highlighting Meta’s effort to build infrastructure for increasingly large AI models. One Chip, One Datacenter
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and investors remain divided over Meta’s large AI infrastructure budget, reportedly reaching about $130 billion, with strong advertising growth helping fund the investment but raising the risk of lower near-term returns.
• Negative Sentiment: Muse’s ability to access sensitive information, send messages and make payments is intensifying concerns about privacy, security and reliability. The launch follows heightened scrutiny of Meta’s record on social-media safety. Meta pushes into personal AI agents as company faces public reckoning over privacy and safety
• Negative Sentiment: Meta also faces litigation alleging that facial-recognition technology was trained for its smart glasses, adding to regulatory and legal-overhang concerns. Meta sued over alleged facial recognition training for smart glasses
• Negative Sentiment: The company’s recently announced teen-safety settlements, potentially totaling about $18 billion, remain a material financial and reputational liability even as the agreement reduces some legal uncertainty.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho set a $750.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $700.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $725.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Arete Research set a $735.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $785.22.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of META. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 1,875,012,642 shares in the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% during the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $69,502,379,000 after purchasing an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $22,152,075,000. Corient Private Wealth LP boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 723.1% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 8,801,764 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,957,946,000 after purchasing an additional 7,732,446 shares during the period. Finally, Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,948,486,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

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.