Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Purchased by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 17.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,017,628 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 437,541 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.5% of The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,726,379,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Estuary Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $20,231,000. KCM Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,320 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,188,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. Excelsior Advisor Network LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 49.9% during the first quarter. Excelsior Advisor Network LLC now owns 1,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $770,000 after buying an additional 448 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 16.2% during the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 1,510,047 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $863,944,000 after buying an additional 211,080 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SummitTX Capital L.P. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 237.4% in the first quarter. SummitTX Capital L.P. now owns 7,879 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,508,000 after buying an additional 5,544 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 837 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.85, for a total value of $508,770.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 6,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,823,376.50. The trade was a 11.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.75, for a total value of $303,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,443 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,092,483.25. The trade was a 12.68% 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 39,325 shares of company stock valued at $23,979,087. 13.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 8.0%

Meta Platforms stock opened at $539.03 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.30, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $602.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $623.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its 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). The firm 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 34.81%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $7.14 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.4 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $725.00 price objective (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $640.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Wedbush reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $671.00 to $595.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $789.95.

More 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 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.