Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading 11.3% Higher – Time to Buy?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s share price traded up 11.3% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $753.00 and last traded at $741.25. Approximately 48,309,015 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 181% from the average session volume of 17,192,922 shares. The stock had previously closed at $665.75.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wells Fargo raised its price target to $796 from $640 and reiterated an Overweight rating, citing recent AI model launches, early Muse traction, and potential catalysts from the upcoming Connect conference. Wells Fargo raises Meta price target
• Positive Sentiment: Muse reportedly generated about 730,000 U.S. iOS downloads in roughly five days and briefly ranked ahead of ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude among free apps. The adoption supports Meta’s strategy to make AI agents a mainstream consumer product and could eventually create subscription or commerce revenue. Muse download performance
• Positive Sentiment: Meta is expanding its AI infrastructure ambitions, including a reported C$13 billion Alberta data center and a subsea network designed for petabit-scale connectivity. Investors may view the projects as evidence of long-term commitment to AI capacity, although they also imply significant capital spending. Meta Alberta data center
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta Connect is scheduled for this week, making announcements about Muse, AI models, custom chips, and subscription products potential near-term catalysts.
• Neutral Sentiment: Facebook and Instagram experienced reported outages affecting thousands of users, but the disruption has not appeared to outweigh enthusiasm around Meta’s AI strategy. Meta social network outage
• Negative Sentiment: Amazon blocked Muse from shopping on its website, alleging that the agent did not properly identify itself and raised security, privacy, and credential concerns. The dispute highlights regulatory and platform-access obstacles for agentic commerce. Amazon blocks Meta Muse
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned about heavy AI infrastructure and Reality Labs spending, while a potential multibillion-dollar legal settlement charge could pressure upcoming quarterly results.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Friday, September 11th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Mizuho set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, 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 report on Thursday, July 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $792.68.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average of $606.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $609.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a current ratio of 2.23.

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 business had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $7.14 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 27.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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 Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 946 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $657.73, for a total value of $622,212.58. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 10,716 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,048,234.68. This trade represents a 8.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Curtis Mahoney sold 1,559 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $558.00, for a total transaction of $869,922.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,957 shares in the company, valued at $1,092,006. This represents a 44.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 81,758 shares of company stock valued at $51,214,020. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its position in Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $69,502,379,000 after acquiring an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $22,152,075,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 14.6% during the 1st 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 period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 18,200,469 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,013,948,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,715 shares during the period. 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.