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Mystic Asset Management Inc. cut its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 9.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,014 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,623 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.9% of Mystic Asset Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Mystic Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,021,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its position 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 stake in 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 valued at $34,734,628,000 after purchasing an additional 878,396 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $22,152,075,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Meta Platforms by 14.6% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,673,494 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 18,200,469 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $12,013,948,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,715 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Meta Platforms from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $640.00 to $820.00 in a report on Thursday, September 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $725.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Wedbush raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $595.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $800.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $780.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Four 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 presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $788.88.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on META Meta Platforms Price Performance NASDAQ META opened at $665.60 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $520.26 and a 12 month high of $790.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.70 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $602.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $608.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) 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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $7.14 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 21st will be given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 21st. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 7.91%.

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

Positive Sentiment: AI strategy is boosting investor confidence. Goldman Sachs reiterated its bullish view, citing the rollout of Meta’s Muse AI agent and a recent legal settlement as potential catalysts. Analysts also argue that Meta’s valuation remains attractive relative to its growth, with one estimate assigning an $817 price target. Why is Meta stock gaining in premarket today Positive Sentiment: Advertising momentum supports earnings expectations. A bullish analysis highlighted second-quarter ad impressions growth of 14% and a 12% increase in average ad prices. Meta’s forward PEG ratio was also described as below both the sector median and its five-year average, suggesting investors may still view the stock as reasonably valued despite its recent rally. Meta Platforms: AI Spending Is Starting To Pay Off Positive Sentiment: Meta is benefiting from a shift in AI sentiment. Shares of Meta and Alphabet gained while AI-chip stocks weakened after several AI executives called for a slower approach to developing frontier models. Investors may be favoring Meta because its large user base and advertising business provide diversified ways to monetize AI. Why Google and Meta Stocks Are the Big Winners From the Latest AI Concerns Neutral Sentiment: AI investment is creating both opportunity and financial risk. AI-related debt issuance has surged, and Meta is viewed as better positioned than highly leveraged infrastructure providers because of its stronger cash generation. Nevertheless, the scale of data-center spending could pressure free cash flow and increase execution risk. AI-Related Debt Sales Are Near $500 Billion Negative Sentiment: Meta faces a proposed class-action lawsuit over smart-glasses privacy. Parents and children in California and Illinois allege that the company’s unreleased “NameTag” facial-recognition feature improperly used Facebook and Instagram data. The case could create legal costs, regulatory scrutiny and reputational damage if the allegations gain traction. Meta Faces Lawsuit Over Smart Glasses Facial Recognition Negative Sentiment: Content-moderation and insider-selling headlines add caution. Meta’s Oversight Board urged it not to replace professional fact-checking with Community Notes, while a reported insider stock sale worth about $13 million may weigh modestly on sentiment. These developments raise governance and reputational concerns, although neither necessarily changes Meta’s underlying operating outlook. Oversight Board asks Meta not to replace fact-checking with Community Notes Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms In other Meta Platforms news, insider Curtis Mahoney sold 1,559 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $558.00, for a total value of $869,922.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,957 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,092,006. This represents a 44.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,838 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $616.71, for a total transaction of $1,750,222.98. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 11,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,192,072.02. This trade represents a 19.57% 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. Insiders sold 60,183 shares of company stock valued at $36,673,495 in the last quarter. 13.53% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Company Profile (Free Report)

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.

See Also Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Analysts Are Punting Their Calls Into the Next Quarter After Adobe’s Mixed Earnings Institutional Money Is Pouring Into These 2 Altcoin ETFs The End of Big Tech Buybacks? Only One Hyperscaler Is Still Repurchasing Shares 3 Dividend Kings to Buy While They’re Still Beaten Down

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Portfolio Design Labs LLC cut its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 25.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 17,042 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 5,691 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.6% of Portfolio Design Labs LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Portfolio Design Labs LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,600,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of META. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its holdings 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 valued at $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $22,152,075,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 2,673,494 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 18,200,469 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $12,013,948,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046,715 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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

Positive Sentiment: AI strategy is boosting investor confidence. Goldman Sachs reiterated its bullish view, citing the rollout of Meta’s Muse AI agent and a recent legal settlement as potential catalysts. Analysts also argue that Meta’s valuation remains attractive relative to its growth, with one estimate assigning an $817 price target. Why is Meta stock gaining in premarket today Positive Sentiment: Advertising momentum supports earnings expectations. A bullish analysis highlighted second-quarter ad impressions growth of 14% and a 12% increase in average ad prices. Meta’s forward PEG ratio was also described as below both the sector median and its five-year average, suggesting investors may still view the stock as reasonably valued despite its recent rally. Meta Platforms: AI Spending Is Starting To Pay Off Positive Sentiment: Meta is benefiting from a shift in AI sentiment. Shares of Meta and Alphabet gained while AI-chip stocks weakened after several AI executives called for a slower approach to developing frontier models. Investors may be favoring Meta because its large user base and advertising business provide diversified ways to monetize AI. Why Google and Meta Stocks Are the Big Winners From the Latest AI Concerns Neutral Sentiment: AI investment is creating both opportunity and financial risk. AI-related debt issuance has surged, and Meta is viewed as better positioned than highly leveraged infrastructure providers because of its stronger cash generation. Nevertheless, the scale of data-center spending could pressure free cash flow and increase execution risk. AI-Related Debt Sales Are Near $500 Billion Negative Sentiment: Meta faces a proposed class-action lawsuit over smart-glasses privacy. Parents and children in California and Illinois allege that the company’s unreleased “NameTag” facial-recognition feature improperly used Facebook and Instagram data. The case could create legal costs, regulatory scrutiny and reputational damage if the allegations gain traction. Meta Faces Lawsuit Over Smart Glasses Facial Recognition Negative Sentiment: Content-moderation and insider-selling headlines add caution. Meta’s Oversight Board urged it not to replace professional fact-checking with Community Notes, while a reported insider stock sale worth about $13 million may weigh modestly on sentiment. These developments raise governance and reputational concerns, although neither necessarily changes Meta’s underlying operating outlook. Oversight Board asks Meta not to replace fact-checking with Community Notes Insider Activity In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 3,240 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.06, for a total value of $2,002,514.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 6,271 shares in the company, valued at $3,875,854.26. This trade represents a 34.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $650.28, for a total value of $13,005,600.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 244,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,003,864.48. The trade was a 7.56% 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 a total of 60,183 shares of company stock valued at $36,673,495 in the last ninety days. 13.53% of the stock is owned by company insiders. Meta Platforms Stock Performance NASDAQ META opened at $665.60 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $602.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $608.92. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $520.26 and a twelve month high of $790.80. The company has a market capitalization of $1.70 trillion, a PE 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 – Get Free Report) last posted 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 analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $7.14 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.17 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth A number of analysts recently commented on META shares. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $766.00 to $715.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $780.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt decreased 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 note on Thursday, July 30th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $640.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research 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 given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $788.88.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms Profile (Free Report)

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.

See Also Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Analysts Are Punting Their Calls Into the Next Quarter After Adobe’s Mixed Earnings Institutional Money Is Pouring Into These 2 Altcoin ETFs The End of Big Tech Buybacks? Only One Hyperscaler Is Still Repurchasing Shares 3 Dividend Kings to Buy While They’re Still Beaten Down Want to see what other hedge funds are holding META? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report).

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Meta Platforms’ stock META has been caught between enthusiasm over its artificial intelligence ambitions and concerns about the enormous cost of funding those efforts.

The latest rebound is giving bulls fresh reason to believe the company could finally be approaching a sustained breakout, Bloomberg reported, although analysts remain divided over whether the rally can last.

Meta shares have risen 22% from their August low and are on track for their strongest monthly gain since May 2025.

The recovery accelerated after the company settled a major social-media lawsuit and introduced Muse, an AI agent designed to automate everyday tasks for consumers.

The developments have helped revive the investment case for Meta after a year of repeated rallies that ultimately failed to hold.

Meta stock has already experienced four trough-to-peak gains of at least 20% in 2026.

Each rally subsequently faded, with the stock recording lower highs along the way.

That has left the shares essentially flat for the year, compared with a roughly 15% gain for the Nasdaq 100.

Meta was up about 1.4% today, touching $675.

Investors betting on a sustained recovery believe the latest combination of legal relief and AI product momentum could be different.

"Eliminating a legal overhang and then having a positive product in a hot narrative is certainly enough to get the early stages of a trend change going," Dan Russo, co-chief investment officer at Potomac Fund Management, which owns Meta shares, said in the Bloomberg report.

"We've seen a number of these counter-trend rallies fizzle out and fade. What's key from here is to build on the momentum and validate the changing trend."

For Russo, that validation would require Meta stock to break decisively above $700 and remain there.

The $18 billion settlement of Meta's social-media lawsuit has also removed a significant source of uncertainty.

The company had previously calculated that an adverse trial outcome could have exposed it to penalties of as much as $1.4 trillion.

Meta shares have fallen in only four of the 12 trading sessions since the settlement was announced on Aug. 26.

The legal resolution has arrived alongside renewed optimism about Meta’s AI ambitions.

Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak compared Meta’s current setup with Alphabet’s position in late 2025, when the Google parent received a favourable ruling in a long-running antitrust case and subsequently launched a series of AI products.

Alphabet shares have since gained more than 50%, becoming the best-performing Magnificent Seven stock over that period.

Nowak believes Meta could similarly benefit as it continues to roll out AI products.

Meta is in position to keep releasing new products, "which in aggregate could add $10+ to EPS," Nowak wrote in an Aug. 30 note.

"We don't believe these are priced in Meta right now," he added, arguing that the stock is trading below its valuation peak in 2025, when investors viewed Meta as an "AI winner" and GPU investments were helping drive faster growth.

JPMorgan has also become more positive, upgrading Meta to overweight last week.

Analyst Doug Anmuth cited "strong early traction" for Muse and said the product demonstrated why Meta could have an advantage in bringing consumer-focused AI products to its enormous user base.

"Meta is well-positioned to deliver consumer-driven AI products to its base of about 4B users," Anmuth said.

"There's still meaningful upside potential as Meta is in the early stages of releasing frontier models and AI-driven products beyond advertising," he added.

Meta’s valuation could provide another reason for investors to consider the stock after its recent weakness.

The company trades at roughly 18 times estimated earnings for the next 12 months, below its 10-year average of about 20 times and more than 30% below its 2025 peak.

At the same time, analysts expect revenue to grow by more than 25% this year, while earnings are forecast to increase by more than 30%.

But the stock’s relatively inexpensive valuation also reflects concerns about the enormous investment required to compete in AI.

Meta's capital expenditure is expected to nearly double to about $140 billion this year and rise to almost $200 billion in 2027.

That spending is expected to put substantial pressure on free cash flow.

After previously generating significant cash flows, Meta is projected to post negative free cash flow of about $6.3 billion this year, with the deficit potentially widening to almost $30 billion in 2027.

Investors remain divided over the rallyThose spending requirements are keeping some investors from fully embracing Meta’s recovery.

Cyrus Amini, chief investment officer at Hyphen Wealth Management, said the stock’s valuation and near-term catalysts were attractive, but questioned whether those factors were enough to support a longer-term rally.

"The valuation is attractive, and it could have more short-term catalysts than megacaps, but for anything beyond that, all bets are off. It could easily fade again," he said in the Bloomberg report.

"Things are changing so fast it's hard to safely say any name is a long-term winner."

CM Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 28.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,469 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 988 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 0.5% of CM Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. CM Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,517,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of META. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its position in 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 buying an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $22,152,075,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 488.1% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,466,595 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,608,445,000 after buying an additional 4,537,076 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $59,963,463,000 after acquiring an additional 4,395,763 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 56.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 10,043,955 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,629,913,000 after acquiring an additional 3,613,211 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance Meta Platforms stock opened at $648.03 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market cap of $1.65 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $520.26 and a 12-month high of $790.80. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $601.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $608.74.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $7.14 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Meta Platforms Announces Dividend The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 21st will be given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 21st. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.91%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth A number of research firms have recently issued reports on META. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $766.00 to $715.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $800.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $883.00 to $886.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Citizens Jmp reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $770.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $787.54.

Get Our Latest Research Report on Meta Platforms

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

Positive Sentiment: Muse gains early consumer traction: Meta’s new AI agent reportedly reached No. 2 or No. 3 on the U.S. App Store shortly after its launch. Muse can interact with social platforms and outside services, while paid tiers priced at $20 and $100 per month create a potential new revenue stream beyond advertising. Meta’s AI agent Muse is now the No. 2 app in the US Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan upgraded the stock: JPMorgan raised Meta to Overweight from Neutral and increased its price target to $820, citing meaningful growth potential from frontier AI models and agentic products. The upgrade helped reinforce the bullish view that Meta can diversify beyond advertising. JPMorgan upgrades Meta on AI models and agents Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure optionality: Analysts believe Meta’s large AI-compute investments could eventually support a cloud-computing or infrastructure business, adding an opportunity not currently reflected in the valuation. The company’s strong revenue growth and substantial cash resources support this investment thesis. Positive Sentiment: Quarterly dividend declared: Meta announced a $0.525-per-share dividend payable September 28 to shareholders of record September 21. While the yield is modest, the payout signals confidence in ongoing cash generation. Neutral Sentiment: Legal settlement viewed as manageable: Commentary suggests Meta’s potential $18 billion social-media-addiction settlement, spread over a decade, may have a limited impact on annual free cash flow. Resolving the litigation could also remove an overhang, but the headline liability remains material. Negative Sentiment: Monetization and privacy concerns: Muse’s usefulness depends on access to users’ inboxes, accounts and payments, raising adoption and privacy questions. Analysts remain uncertain about conversion rates and near-term revenue. Negative Sentiment: AI execution and regulatory risks: A prominent AI researcher is leaving Meta for Anthropic, while an internal effort to capture employee screens for AI training reportedly triggered resistance. Meta is also discussing possible teen social-media restrictions in South Korea, and TikTok rejected Meta advertisements urging participation in a child-safety settlement. Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,848 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $558.00, for a total value of $4,379,184.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 828 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $462,024. The trade was a 90.46% decrease in their position. 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 business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total value of $2,012,047.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 9,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,708,013.06. This represents a 26.06% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 60,183 shares of company stock worth $36,673,495. Corporate insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company Profile (Free Report)

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.

Featured Stories Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Why Bitcoin ETFs May Be Worth Another Look as Inflows Rebound 3 Small-Cap Biotechs With Binary Catalysts on the Calendar Planet Labs Has Fallen Back to Earth, But Wall Street Still Sees a Rebound As Homeowners’ Premiums Surge, This Insurer Is Posting Record Profits Want to see what other hedge funds are holding META? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report).

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Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) insider Christopher Cox sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $650.28, for a total value of $13,005,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 244,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,003,864.48. The trade was a 7.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $648.03 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.65 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.41, a PEG 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. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $601.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $608.94. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $520.26 and a 12-month high of $790.80.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion for 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 revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $7.14 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.17 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 21st will be issued 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 payout ratio is 7.91%. Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. RHL Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Advantage Trust Co bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Philadelphia Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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

Positive Sentiment: Muse gains early consumer traction: Meta’s new AI agent reportedly reached No. 2 or No. 3 on the U.S. App Store shortly after its launch. Muse can interact with social platforms and outside services, while paid tiers priced at $20 and $100 per month create a potential new revenue stream beyond advertising. Meta’s AI agent Muse is now the No. 2 app in the US Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan upgraded the stock: JPMorgan raised Meta to Overweight from Neutral and increased its price target to $820, citing meaningful growth potential from frontier AI models and agentic products. The upgrade helped reinforce the bullish view that Meta can diversify beyond advertising. JPMorgan upgrades Meta on AI models and agents Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure optionality: Analysts believe Meta’s large AI-compute investments could eventually support a cloud-computing or infrastructure business, adding an opportunity not currently reflected in the valuation. The company’s strong revenue growth and substantial cash resources support this investment thesis. Positive Sentiment: Quarterly dividend declared: Meta announced a $0.525-per-share dividend payable September 28 to shareholders of record September 21. While the yield is modest, the payout signals confidence in ongoing cash generation. Neutral Sentiment: Legal settlement viewed as manageable: Commentary suggests Meta’s potential $18 billion social-media-addiction settlement, spread over a decade, may have a limited impact on annual free cash flow. Resolving the litigation could also remove an overhang, but the headline liability remains material. Negative Sentiment: Monetization and privacy concerns: Muse’s usefulness depends on access to users’ inboxes, accounts and payments, raising adoption and privacy questions. Analysts remain uncertain about conversion rates and near-term revenue. Negative Sentiment: AI execution and regulatory risks: A prominent AI researcher is leaving Meta for Anthropic, while an internal effort to capture employee screens for AI training reportedly triggered resistance. Meta is also discussing possible teen social-media restrictions in South Korea, and TikTok rejected Meta advertisements urging participation in a child-safety settlement. Analysts Set New Price Targets META has been the subject of several research reports. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $700.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $766.00 to $715.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Meta Platforms from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $640.00 to $820.00 in a research note on Thursday. Raymond James Financial lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $787.54.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms Company Profile (Get Free Report)

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.

See Also Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Rocket Lab Tackles a Supply Chain Bottleneck as the Stock Hunts for a Bottom. Time to Buy? Optical Cable Corporation Is Starting to Get the Market’s Attention Oil Above $100 Is Creating a New Opportunity Beyond the Major Producers Is Nike’s Index Demotion a Warning or a Buying Opportunity?

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K2 Principal Fund L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,500 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,408,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted 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 valued at $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $59,963,463,000 after buying an additional 4,395,763 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 valued at $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its position in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $26,112,735,000 after buying an additional 310,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 37,553,102 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $24,788,429,000 after acquiring an additional 823,883 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance NASDAQ:META opened at $648.03 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.65 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.41, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $520.26 and a 1-year high of $790.80. The business has a 50 day moving average of $601.58 and a 200 day moving average of $608.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $7.14 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 21st will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 21st. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.91%.

Insider Activity In other Meta Platforms news, insider Curtis Mahoney sold 1,559 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $558.00, for a total transaction of $869,922.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,957 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,092,006. This trade represents a 44.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Christopher Cox sold 20,000 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $650.28, for a total value of $13,005,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 244,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,003,864.48. The trade was a 7.56% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 61,581 shares of company stock worth $37,512,295. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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

Positive Sentiment: Muse gains early consumer traction: Meta’s new AI agent reportedly reached No. 2 or No. 3 on the U.S. App Store shortly after its launch. Muse can interact with social platforms and outside services, while paid tiers priced at $20 and $100 per month create a potential new revenue stream beyond advertising. Meta’s AI agent Muse is now the No. 2 app in the US Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan upgraded the stock: JPMorgan raised Meta to Overweight from Neutral and increased its price target to $820, citing meaningful growth potential from frontier AI models and agentic products. The upgrade helped reinforce the bullish view that Meta can diversify beyond advertising. JPMorgan upgrades Meta on AI models and agents Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure optionality: Analysts believe Meta’s large AI-compute investments could eventually support a cloud-computing or infrastructure business, adding an opportunity not currently reflected in the valuation. The company’s strong revenue growth and substantial cash resources support this investment thesis. Positive Sentiment: Quarterly dividend declared: Meta announced a $0.525-per-share dividend payable September 28 to shareholders of record September 21. While the yield is modest, the payout signals confidence in ongoing cash generation. Neutral Sentiment: Legal settlement viewed as manageable: Commentary suggests Meta’s potential $18 billion social-media-addiction settlement, spread over a decade, may have a limited impact on annual free cash flow. Resolving the litigation could also remove an overhang, but the headline liability remains material. Negative Sentiment: Monetization and privacy concerns: Muse’s usefulness depends on access to users’ inboxes, accounts and payments, raising adoption and privacy questions. Analysts remain uncertain about conversion rates and near-term revenue. Negative Sentiment: AI execution and regulatory risks: A prominent AI researcher is leaving Meta for Anthropic, while an internal effort to capture employee screens for AI training reportedly triggered resistance. Meta is also discussing possible teen social-media restrictions in South Korea, and TikTok rejected Meta advertisements urging participation in a child-safety settlement. Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $800.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $883.00 to $886.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $780.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Four investment 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $787.54.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Meta Platforms

About Meta Platforms (Free Report)

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.

Further Reading Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Block Makes a Federal Trust Bank Move That Could Reshape Its Fintech Model Kroger’s Textbook Entry for Buy-and-Hold Investors AST SpaceMobile Looks to Extend Its 30-Day FCC Satellite Testing Window Amgen Drops 10% on a Trial It Didn’t Even Run Want to see what other hedge funds are holding META? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report).

Receive News & Ratings for Meta Platforms Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Meta Platforms and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

First National Bank of Omaha trimmed its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 47,503 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,774 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for 0.8% of First National Bank of Omaha’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. First National Bank of Omaha’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $26,749,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $22,152,075,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 488.1% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,466,595 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,608,445,000 after acquiring an additional 4,537,076 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $59,963,463,000 after acquiring an additional 4,395,763 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 56.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 10,043,955 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,629,913,000 after buying an additional 3,613,211 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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

Positive Sentiment: Muse gains early consumer traction: Meta’s new AI agent reportedly reached No. 2 or No. 3 on the U.S. App Store shortly after its launch. Muse can interact with social platforms and outside services, while paid tiers priced at $20 and $100 per month create a potential new revenue stream beyond advertising. Meta’s AI agent Muse is now the No. 2 app in the US Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan upgraded the stock: JPMorgan raised Meta to Overweight from Neutral and increased its price target to $820, citing meaningful growth potential from frontier AI models and agentic products. The upgrade helped reinforce the bullish view that Meta can diversify beyond advertising. JPMorgan upgrades Meta on AI models and agents Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure optionality: Analysts believe Meta’s large AI-compute investments could eventually support a cloud-computing or infrastructure business, adding an opportunity not currently reflected in the valuation. The company’s strong revenue growth and substantial cash resources support this investment thesis. Positive Sentiment: Quarterly dividend declared: Meta announced a $0.525-per-share dividend payable September 28 to shareholders of record September 21. While the yield is modest, the payout signals confidence in ongoing cash generation. Neutral Sentiment: Legal settlement viewed as manageable: Commentary suggests Meta’s potential $18 billion social-media-addiction settlement, spread over a decade, may have a limited impact on annual free cash flow. Resolving the litigation could also remove an overhang, but the headline liability remains material. Negative Sentiment: Monetization and privacy concerns: Muse’s usefulness depends on access to users’ inboxes, accounts and payments, raising adoption and privacy questions. Analysts remain uncertain about conversion rates and near-term revenue. Negative Sentiment: AI execution and regulatory risks: A prominent AI researcher is leaving Meta for Anthropic, while an internal effort to capture employee screens for AI training reportedly triggered resistance. Meta is also discussing possible teen social-media restrictions in South Korea, and TikTok rejected Meta advertisements urging participation in a child-safety settlement. Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.6% META opened at $648.03 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a market cap of $1.65 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $601.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $608.94. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $520.26 and a 52 week high of $790.80. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $7.14 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.17 EPS for the current year.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of equities research analysts recently commented on META shares. 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 report on Thursday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Meta Platforms from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $640.00 to $820.00 in a research note on Thursday. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $650.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Friday. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $787.54.

Read Our Latest Report on Meta Platforms

Insider Buying and Selling In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,196 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $550.61, for a total value of $5,063,409.56. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at $7,260,343.46. The trade was a 41.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $650.28, for a total transaction of $13,005,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 244,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,003,864.48. This trade represents a 7.56% 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. Insiders sold a total of 61,581 shares of company stock valued at $37,512,295 in the last 90 days. 13.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Meta Platforms (Free Report)

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.

Further Reading Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Block Makes a Federal Trust Bank Move That Could Reshape Its Fintech Model Kroger’s Textbook Entry for Buy-and-Hold Investors AST SpaceMobile Looks to Extend Its 30-Day FCC Satellite Testing Window Amgen Drops 10% on a Trial It Didn’t Even Run Want to see what other hedge funds are holding META? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report).

Receive News & Ratings for Meta Platforms Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Meta Platforms and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-seven analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-four have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $787.5366.

A number of analysts have commented on META shares. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $763.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Wall Street Zen cut Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Arete Research set a $735.00 target price on Meta Platforms and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd.

Check Out Our Latest Report on Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms Price Performance Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $648.03 on Friday. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $790.80. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $601.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $608.94. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market cap of $1.65 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $7.14 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 28.17 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 21st will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 7.91%.

Insiders Place Their Bets In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,196 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $550.61, for a total transaction of $5,063,409.56. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,260,343.46. The trade was a 41.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 2,838 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $616.71, for a total transaction of $1,750,222.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 11,662 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,192,072.02. This trade represents a 19.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 61,581 shares of company stock valued at $37,512,295. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vista Capital Partners Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. now owns 1,075 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $794,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Objective Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Objective Capital Management LLC now owns 553 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $365,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Watchman Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the first quarter. Watchman Group Inc. now owns 5,091 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,913,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Penney Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.9% during the first quarter. Penney Financial LLC now owns 399 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $228,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% during the first quarter. Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,519 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $869,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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

Positive Sentiment: Muse gains early consumer traction: Meta’s new AI agent reportedly reached No. 2 or No. 3 on the U.S. App Store shortly after its launch. Muse can interact with social platforms and outside services, while paid tiers priced at $20 and $100 per month create a potential new revenue stream beyond advertising. Meta’s AI agent Muse is now the No. 2 app in the US Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan upgraded the stock: JPMorgan raised Meta to Overweight from Neutral and increased its price target to $820, citing meaningful growth potential from frontier AI models and agentic products. The upgrade helped reinforce the bullish view that Meta can diversify beyond advertising. JPMorgan upgrades Meta on AI models and agents Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure optionality: Analysts believe Meta’s large AI-compute investments could eventually support a cloud-computing or infrastructure business, adding an opportunity not currently reflected in the valuation. The company’s strong revenue growth and substantial cash resources support this investment thesis. Positive Sentiment: Quarterly dividend declared: Meta announced a $0.525-per-share dividend payable September 28 to shareholders of record September 21. While the yield is modest, the payout signals confidence in ongoing cash generation. Neutral Sentiment: Legal settlement viewed as manageable: Commentary suggests Meta’s potential $18 billion social-media-addiction settlement, spread over a decade, may have a limited impact on annual free cash flow. Resolving the litigation could also remove an overhang, but the headline liability remains material. Negative Sentiment: Monetization and privacy concerns: Muse’s usefulness depends on access to users’ inboxes, accounts and payments, raising adoption and privacy questions. Analysts remain uncertain about conversion rates and near-term revenue. Negative Sentiment: AI execution and regulatory risks: A prominent AI researcher is leaving Meta for Anthropic, while an internal effort to capture employee screens for AI training reportedly triggered resistance. Meta is also discussing possible teen social-media restrictions in South Korea, and TikTok rejected Meta advertisements urging participation in a child-safety settlement. About Meta Platforms (Get Free Report)

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.

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Meta just put a price tag on its AI ambitions, and the number reveals something uncomfortable about how dependent the company still is on a single revenue stream that has nothing to do with subscriptions.

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On Tuesday morning, CNBC’s Julia Boorstin reported that “Meta is unveiling a personal AI agent that Mark Zuckerberg has been teasing for months”, a product Meta calls Muse that ships as a standalone app and inside WhatsApp.

Boorstin said Muse “gives users a personalized agent which can act like an assistant. It can monitor security cameras, file, fill in paperwork, find items to buy, or can book tee times.”

The key number: Meta released Muse with a free tier and two paid tiers, the higher-priced at $100 a month, positioning the product between OpenAI’s $20 ChatGPT Plus and its $200 Pro plan.

For shareholders in Meta (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction), this matters because every dollar the company has earned from consumers historically came from advertising sold against free products. Asking a Facebook user to hand over a credit card each month is a genuinely new business model.

The stock is not acting as the market has priced that in. META closed at $613.48 on Tuesday, down 18.19% over the last year.

Why the Pricing Matters More Than the Feature List Meta AI Chief Alex Wang said, “We are incredibly excited about consumer AI. And we see today a very small number of people who have really experienced the power of advanced agents in these new models.” The category is wide open, but nobody has proven consumers will pay a subscription for a personal agent at any price, let alone $100 a month.

The pricing itself signals to Wall Street that Meta is moving beyond its core story. The company has spent years telling investors AI would show up as better ad targeting, with $59.36 billion in advertising revenue in Q2.

A paid tier creates a recurring line item independent of ad load and gives Zuckerberg a way to defend the $130 to $145 billion in 2026 capital expenditure the company just guided to.

Why WhatsApp Is the Real Weapon OpenAI and Anthropic have mindshare. Meta has a messaging app installed on billions of phones.

Meta ended Q2 with 3.6 billion daily active people across its family of apps, and management said WhatsApp is the leading surface where people engage with Meta AI. Business agents are the proof of concept: more than 1 million businesses already use them weekly on WhatsApp and Messenger.

Compare that to Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which reaches consumers through a Gemini App with 950 million monthly active users, and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which reaches workers through 30 million Copilot paid seats sold at roughly $30 per user per month.

WhatsApp lets Meta skip the acquisition funnel. Users don’t download anything, and payment flows through a channel they already trust.

What the Paid Tiers Say About Meta’s AI Spending Meta’s Q2 free cash flow collapsed to $784 million from $8.55 billion a year earlier, with capital spending hitting $31.1 billion in the quarter alone. Long-term debt climbed to $83.66 billion to fund the buildout. Full details are in the Q2 8-K.

Analysts have noticed, with 45 downward EPS revisions for fiscal 2026 in the last 30 days against only 4 upward.

A $100-a-month subscription is how Zuckerberg starts answering the return-on-invested-capital question. Even modest paid conversion across a billion-user surface would meaningfully change the revenue mix.

Alphabet is monetizing AI through Cloud, which grew 82% year over year in Q2. Microsoft is monetizing it through per-seat Copilot and Azure, which crossed $100 billion in annual revenue. Meta is the only one of the three still searching for a repeatable AI revenue line outside advertising, and the picks-and-shovels names powering all three buildouts (we rounded up seven of them in a free report on the AI infrastructure trade) are the ones capturing the capex right now.

The Setup Now With META Stock The stock trades at a forward P/E of 18x, a discount to Microsoft’s 27x multiple, with an analyst target of $754.77.

Muse is late to a market where ChatGPT already owns the noun. Distribution alone rarely closes a product gap, although WhatsApp is the closest thing to an unfair advantage anyone has brought to this fight.

The bear case: free cash flow is thin, capex is climbing, and consumers may not pay $100 a month for an agent that overlaps with cheaper tools they already use.

The bull case: Meta’s ad business is still growing 27%, the valuation is reasonable, and any paid AI revenue is upside the market has not underwritten.

The setup favors investors who can tolerate capital-spending headline risk through 2027. If Muse conversion disappoints by next summer, that thesis has to be revisited.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Meta's new AI agent Muse shot to third on the US App Store in two days, but the feature that makes it genuinely useful is the same one giving analysts pause: it needs your inbox, your accounts, and possibly your…

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Mark Zuckerberg has spent the past year telling investors that “personal superintelligence” would arrive through Meta (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) apps that billions of people already open every day. Muse launched at the end of August and climbed to third place on the United States App Store within two days. JPMorgan responded with an Overweight upgrade tied to Muse’s early traction.

An App Store ranking captures downloads over a short window, while engagement and revenue remain the metrics that matter. The more interesting question is what Muse asks of you: the agent is only useful in proportion to how much of your digital life it can access. That is also why some analysts are unconvinced.

What Muse Actually Does Muse is pitched as a general-purpose assistant that manages email, plans travel, books restaurants, monitors subscriptions, compares prices, and completes purchases with user approval. To do any of that, it needs access to your inbox, calendar, accounts, and, in some cases, payment credentials.

Meta says you approve each action, can revoke connections at any time, and receive an activity log. On the July earnings call, Zuckerberg said Meta launched incognito mode on WhatsApp and the Meta AI app so private conversations remain hidden, and framed privacy as “a fundamental part of the agents that we’re building.” After integrating Muse Spark, Meta saw “a 60% increase in the number of people interacting with the assistant each day.”

The transcript does not specify how Muse handles email passwords or stored payment secrets. An Oppenheimer analyst questioned whether ordinary consumers will hand a social-media company the keys to their inbox.

Distribution Is the Real Advantage Meta’s advantage over a standalone AI startup is reach. Family of Apps daily active people hit 3.6 billion in the second quarter, and more than 1 million businesses already use Meta’s business agents on WhatsApp and Messenger every week.

Three plausible Muse revenue lines exist: subscriptions, shopping commissions when the agent completes a purchase, and business services sold to merchants. Zuckerberg described a “business in a box” ambition with subscription, volume, and performance-based pricing. The Brazilian rental-car company Movida saw a 44% increase in daily bookings through WhatsApp after deploying an agent, with 85% of conversations resolved without a human.

Costs are heavier than revenue today. Meta’s second-quarter free cash flow collapsed to $784 million from $8.55 billion a year earlier, with full-year capex guided to $130-145 billion. All of that spending flows to the power, cooling, and networking suppliers behind the data centers, and we profiled seven of them in a free report on the AI infrastructure buildout.

Trust as the Bottleneck Usefulness and intrusiveness are the same property. If you want Muse to catch a fraudulent charge or rebook a canceled flight, it needs account access, and each connection widens the blast radius of any breach.

Meta’s regulatory history does not help the pitch. The company took $2.4 billion in legal charges in the second quarter alone and still faces U.S. trials scheduled for the year that may result in material losses tied to youth safety.

Meta trades at a P/E of 23x after slipping 14.03% over the past year, with the stock at $644.38. The ad engine still grew 27% while Muse gives the capex story a consumer product to point to. On the current valuation and distribution advantage, META screens favorably for investors researching names that can tolerate the capex cycle and legal overhang.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Meta Announces Quarterly Cash DividendPR Newswire

MENLO PARK, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026

, /PRNewswire/ -- The Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META) board of directors today declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.525 per share of the company's outstanding Class A common stock and Class B common stock, payable on September 28, 2026 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on September 21, 2026.

About Meta
Meta is building the future of human connection, powered by artificial intelligence and immersive technologies. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving toward building experiences that foster deeper connections and unlock new possibilities.

Contacts

Investors:
Chad Heaton
[email protected] / investor.atmeta.com

Press:
Matt Tye
[email protected] / meta.com/news

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SOURCE Meta

Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.

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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Bloomberg/Getty Images Anthropic posted — and then deleted — a job listing for a salesperson tasked with selling to Meta, its AI rival and one of its largest customers.

The listing, titled "Mega Account Executive, Meta," appeared on Anthropic's job board at a delicate moment for the companies' relationship.

Meta still spends hundreds of millions of dollars a month as Anthropic's customer, according to a recent New York Times report. But it's also trying to reduce its reliance on Anthropic's AI tools as Anthropic is shoring up its finances ahead of a massive initial public offering.

The post suggests Anthropic is betting Meta will remain a major customer even as Meta builds more capable AI models of its own.

After Business Insider asked Anthropic about the listing on Wednesday, the company pulled it down. Anthropic and Meta declined to comment.

Anthropic's job posting offered an annual salary of $380,000 to $450,000, and didn't mention Meta outside the title. It said the salesperson would "win new business and drive revenue within a book of strategic digital native accounts."

The listing stands out for its specificity. Other Anthropic account executive openings target broad regions or sectors, including startups in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, or the public sector in Southeast Asia.

Anthropic's AI coding tool, Claude Code, became popular across Silicon Valley, including at Meta, this year. One internal projection said Meta could spend $10 billion annually on Anthropic, the Times reported. Meta's head of AI product, Nat Friedman, told employees that if Meta decreased its reliance on Anthropic's tools, it could hit Anthropic's revenue as it approaches its IPO, the report said.

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Stephen is a senior tech reporter at Business Insider, covering OpenAI, Anthropic and the ecosystem around the leading artificial intelligence companies.Previously he covered technology at SFGATE, and has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Information and CNBC. He studied journalism and economics at Northwestern University.His work has earned an SF Press Club Investigative Reporting Award and, in 2025, SPJ NorCal’s Excellence in Journalism Award for Technology Reporting.Stephen lives in San Francisco. Contact him via email at [email protected], or on Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 415-757-8198. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

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West Virginia's attorney general just called Meta's $17 billion child safety settlement a smart business move, then pointed directly at Apple as the next target. What he says Apple's iCloud is hiding could upend the privacy brand Tim Cook spent…

On the morning John Ternus took over as Apple CEO, the most consequential headline about the company had nothing to do with the iPhone cycle or Siri AI. It came from a CNBC Squawk Box interview on September 1, 2026, where West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey called Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction)’ recent $17 billion child-safety settlement “a very smart business decision,” naming Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) as the next platform in the crosshairs. His warning to the remaining defendants was blunt: the last company to settle gets hit hardest.

That message landed on a market that is not listening. Apple is up 16.3% year to date and roughly 33% over the past year, trading around $316.29 with a $4.6 trillion market cap. Meta shares, by contrast, are down 18.4% over the past year after absorbing a legal charge that snapped a six-quarter earnings streak.

Meta Wrote the Template. It Was Expensive. Meta disclosed the damage in its Q2 2026 report on July 29, 2026: revenue of $60.80 billion, up 28% year over year, wrecked at the bottom line by $2.40 billion in legal charges tied to youth-related litigation. Diluted EPS came in at $6.18 versus $7.22 consensus, a 14.42% miss. Meta lifted the low end of full-year expense guidance to $165 to $169 billion specifically to absorb the charge.

The money is only half of the tale. According to McCuskey, the injunctive relief in the Meta deal imposes daily time limits, blocks platform use during school hours and overnight, and forces 15-minute breaks after one continuous hour of use. Roughly $5 billion of the $17 billion is contingent on YouTube and TikTok adopting similar restrictions, giving the state coalition, in McCuskey’s phrase, “all the ammunition in the world” to bring the rest of the industry to the table. CEO Mark Zuckerberg made his case in an open letter to rivals.

Apple’s Cloud Is the Alleged Weak Spot The specific claim McCuskey aimed at Apple is narrower than Meta’s algorithmic-harm case and, if the states prevail, harder to defend. He alleged that iCloud is the only major cloud platform that does not permit FBI and law enforcement searches for child sexual abuse material, citing roughly 200 reports from Apple’s cloud versus 600 million found within Google’s. The gap is the argument.

Apple has not disclosed a reserve. On the company’s July 30, 2026 earnings call, former CEO Tim Cook pitched the WWDC26 rollout of “Ask to Browse” and “Time Allowances” as tools to help parents “encourage kids to develop healthy digital habits;” filings continue to flag “effects of unfavorable legal proceedings and complex regulations” in generic terms. There is no line item that resembles Meta’s $2.4 billion hit.

What to Watch Next Apple’s balance sheet can absorb a Meta-sized number. $147 billion in cash and marketable securities against $29.8 billion in quarterly net income makes a headline settlement a rounding error. The injunctive piece is the risk retail holders should sit with. If a coalition of state AGs forces Apple to open iCloud to law enforcement scanning, the privacy positioning Cook has spent a decade building becomes a liability rather than a moat. Watch for two things over the next two quarters: any new legal-reserve disclosure in Apple’s next 10-Q, and whether McCuskey’s coalition files a coordinated complaint or announces a tolling agreement. Silence from Cupertino signals a bet that the states blink first.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Meta on Tuesday rolled out Muse, an artificial intelligence agent that acts as a personal digital assistant by autonomously using software apps and websites on behalf of people.

It is one of the first times that a major tech company has introduced a mass market agent, which is a type of A.I. that researchers predict will become more sophisticated than simple chatbots. Many agents can already do the tasks of office workers, like filling out spreadsheets. But while A.I. agents like OpenClaw are a popular tool among developers and programmers, they have yet to catch on widely.

Muse can be spoken to as if it were a chatbot and instructed to send emails, book travel reservations, make online purchases and do more through an app or through WhatsApp, which Meta owns, the company said. Muse also connects to Meta’s other apps, like Instagram and Facebook, to learn more about its user. And it can be linked to third-party apps like Spotify, Ticketmaster, Shopify, Gmail and OpenTable.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, has described Muse as Meta’s next breakthrough, which works “24/7 on your behalf to help achieve your goals and improve your life, your health, your relationships, your finances.”

Muse is among the first significant consumer A.I. products created by Meta Superintelligence Labs, which Mr. Zuckerberg established last year to propel his company forward in the A.I. race. Meta has been spending billions of dollars to develop foundational A.I. models and to build data centers so that it can compete with Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and others on the cutting edge of the rapidly evolving technology.

So far, Meta has had hits and misses. Products like its A.I. smart glasses have sold millions of pairs while stoking privacy concerns. In July, the company temporarily took down its Instagram A.I. image generator after widespread criticism about copyright and privacy.

The Muse app is free but has limits on usage, which people pay $20 or $100 a month to increase. The agent is only for adults and can be given a custom name and avatar.

When people link their accounts from OpenTable or Ticketmaster to Muse, it can send messages about upcoming concert tickets or restaurant reservations if it thinks its user might be interested, and book them with one click. Muse also connects to Stripe and Shopify, allowing it to make purchases on someone’s behalf. Muse is the first A.I. agent to be covered by Stripe’s warranties and return policy, in case it makes a purchasing mistake, Meta said.

Since A.I. is not foolproof, Meta says that the agent “will sometimes make mistakes” but that it was designed to “help the user stay in control without being overwhelmed.” The Silicon Valley company has created a program so people can report bugs in Muse for a reward. Meta has also said personal data collected by Muse, as well as the agent itself, is securely stored on its cloud servers and hardware.

The agent is powered by Muse Spark, the A.I. model that Meta released in April. The model was Meta’s first developed under Alexandr Wang, the company’s 29-year-old chief A.I. officer, whom Mr. Zuckerberg hired to remake the division last summer.

Muse Spark trails leading models from Anthropic and OpenAI, but Meta plans to release a more powerful model, internally called Watermelon, as soon as next month.

Meta said it also planned to add more features to Muse in the coming months, including integrating it with its smart glasses that have a camera and a voice assistant.

The warning creates no binding rule, but it raises the governance cost surrounding Meta's infrastructure race. Summary

Meta’s enormous AI investment is attracting scrutiny beyond earnings, electricity and data-center permits.

Meta Platforms META, the social-media, digital-advertising and artificial-intelligence giant, faced a sharper global warning over AI governance Monday. According to Reuters, UN human-rights chief Volker Türk urged governments and technology companies to build firm protections against risks to critical infrastructure, communications and democratic institutions. Meta shares were priced at $616.77.

The warning lands as Meta pours unprecedented capital into the AI race. Second-quarter capital expenditures hit $31.08 billion, equivalent to roughly 51.1% of revenue. Sales climbed 28% to $60.80 billion, but total costs rocketed 55% to $42.03 billion, squeezing free cash flow to just $784 million.

The valuation picture adds another layer. Meta's $616.77 share price sits 27.35% below its GF Value estimate of $848.92, signaling substantial potential upside if the company converts its massive AI spending into durable earnings. The UN warning carries no immediate financial penalty, but tougher testing, reporting and safety standards could raise the price of staying at the front of AI. Meta has the cash to build the infrastructure; investors now need proof that its safeguards can scale just as aggressively.

Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.

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Most AI tools allow you to opt out of sharing your usage with the model provider to improve future versions. Meta has taken that idea and put a price tag on it.

For its new Muse Spark model, intended for operating coding and other agents, Meta is offering an explicit discount averaging out to about 95% for users who “contribute” to the development of future models by sharing their prompts and model outputs.

While 1 million input tokens under a standard agreement costs $1.25, under the contributor pricing model they cost just 10 cents. For output tokens, the standard price is $4.25 per million, but that same million costs just 20 cents under the contributor model.

Meta has had a rough time trying to obtain training data: An initiative to track the computer usage of its employees, launched earlier this year, attracted wide internal criticism and was paused in June. The company didn’t respond to a question from TechCrunch about its new pricing model.

This kind of user data is vital for making agentic tools work better. “The reason we saw a big jump in [coding agent] capabilities between April 2025 and October 2025 was that Claude Code, by default, would store all your coding agent sessions and use them for reinforcement learning training,” Mario Zechner, the developer behind the open source harness Pi, told TechCrunch last month.

But even as the imperative for model builders increasingly becomes deploying agentic tools for use outside of software engineering, their ability to evaluate and improve those tools is blocked by the complexity and lack of digital traces for many professional workflows.

Arvind Narayanan, a Princeton computer science professor, noted that there is good evidence that large companies don’t want their data to be used for model training.

“They stick with token-billed Enterprise plans even though the subscription-based consumer plans like Claude Max and ChatGPT Pro are discounted by 10x-20x or even more! (The main difference between the plans is data retention + enterprise IT governance),” he wrote on social media.

Perhaps in recognition of those dynamics, Meta is offering companies explicit compensation to obtain that information. Its pricing guide notes that the contributor tier “lowers the barrier to entry for prototyping, testing integrations, and scaling experiments where training on your data is acceptable.”

That, Narayanan suggested, could in turn incentivize large companies to be more diligent about which data is truly proprietary and which could be shared with model providers.

The framework could also play into growing price competition between the frontier labs. Anthropic’s newest Fable and Mythos models, released yesterday, came with lowered costs for processing cached tokens, while OpenAI’s latest models got major price cuts at the end of July.

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Tim Fernholz is a journalist who writes about technology, finance and public policy. He has closely covered the rise of the private space industry and is the author of Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the New Space Race. Formerly, he was a senior reporter at Quartz, the global business news site, for more than a decade, and began his career as a political reporter in Washington, D.C. You can contact or verify outreach from Tim by emailing [email protected] or via an encrypted message to tim_fernholz.21 on Signal.

Zuckerberg's Q2 message was blunt about AI transforming Meta's business, yet the stock sits more than 25% below its all-time high while legal storms and a historic capex surge squeeze free cash flow to a fraction of last year's levels.…

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Meta (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) has spent 2026 climbing out of a hole. The stock is down 12.2% year to date and down 21.43% over the past year, but Mark Zuckerberg’s Q2 message was unambiguous: “AI is accelerating our core business today, powering our next generation of products, and opening the door to entirely new enterprise opportunities.”

With shares near $595.72 and the 52-week high sitting at $788.22, the question is whether AI monetization can carry META back to record territory.

Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for Meta is $790.61 over the next 12 months, implying 33.34% upside. Our recommendation is buy, with confidence at 90%, our high-conviction tier.

24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary Metric Value Current Price $595.72 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $790.61 Upside 33.34% Recommendation BUY Confidence Level 90% Why the Stock Sold Off, and What Changed Meta’s Q2 2026 report was a mixed picture. Revenue of $60.80 billion rose 27.96% and beat consensus, but diluted EPS of $6.18 missed the $7.2214 estimate as $2.40 billion in legal charges and $1.18 billion in severance from an 8,000-employee reduction weighed on the quarter.

Operating margin compressed to 31%. The stock has clawed back 3.92% over the past month as investors refocus on ad growth: impressions rose 14% and average price per ad rose 12%, with Advantage Plus products crossing a $75 billion annual run rate.

Why Bulls See a Breakout Ahead The bull case rests on AI compounding across ad ranking, creative tools, and net-new revenue lines. Susan Li disclosed that user-understanding models, GEM ad ranking, and sequence learning together drove an 8.3% increase in ad clicks and a 15.7% uplift in conversions on Facebook.

Meta business agents are already used by more than 1 million businesses weekly, and Meta AI daily interactions jumped 60% after the MuseSpark integration.

Analyst enthusiasm is broad, with 47 Buy and 8 Strong Buy ratings. Our bull-case path reaches $858 .41, a new all-time high, if enterprise AI monetization and Ray-Ban Meta glass sales ramp faster than expected.

What Could Go Wrong The bear case starts with CapEx. Meta guided full-year 2026 capital spending to $130 to $145 billion, and Q2 free cash flow collapsed to $784 million from $8.55 billion a year earlier. That spending has to be absorbed by power, cooling, and networking suppliers on the other side of the trade (we profiled seven of them in a free report here: 7 Stocks Powering the AI Boom).

Long-term debt has climbed to $83.66 billion, and youth-related U.S. trials scheduled for 2026 could produce material losses. Bulls counter that FCF pressure reflects front-loaded infrastructure investment while unit economics remain intact; operating cash flow was still $31.86 billion. Our bear-case path lands at $693.77, still above today’s price.

How Meta Compares to Alphabet and Amazon Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is the cleanest ad and AI comparison. Alphabet trades at a forward P/E of 17 with an analyst target of $428.07, meaningfully cheaper than Meta’s forward multiple. Meta commands the higher multiple because its ad growth of nearly 28% is outpacing Alphabet’s 24.2% quarterly revenue growth.

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares the AI-infrastructure capex story. Amazon carries a forward P/E of 22 with an operating margin of just 13.7%, versus Meta’s Family of Apps margins that run north of 40% in normalized quarters. This peer set makes our 24/7 Wall St. price target look reasonable rather than aggressive.

Company Forward P/E Analyst Target Meta ~15 $754.77 Alphabet 17 $428.07 Amazon 22 $327.67 Bottom Line on Meta’s Setup Our 24/7 Wall St. price target is $790.61 with a buy recommendation and 90% confidence. The scale tips on AI-driven ad efficiency that is already translating into double-digit conversion lifts.

The bull thesis strengthens if Q3 revenue lands in the upper half of the $61 to $64 billion guide and CapEx growth flattens into 2027. The thesis weakens if legal charges recur next quarter and free cash flow fails to recover.

Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $649 2027 $809 2028 $948 2029 $1,087 2030 $1,218 These projections assume Meta continues executing on AI monetization while scaling its infrastructure buildout. Significant upside or downside could come from the pace of enterprise AI adoption and the outcome of pending youth-safety litigation.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Meta's Settlement Could Reach $18 Billion as Free Cash Flow Falls to $784 Million The youth-safety deal adds another costly priority as Meta accelerates spending on AI infrastructure. Summary

Meta holds $90.26 billion in cash and securities, with settlement payments spread over time.

Meta Platforms META, the Facebook and Instagram owner, drew fresh investor attention Wednesday as its shares stood at $593.745 and its youth-safety settlement approached $18 billion. Put that number beside Meta's latest quarterly free cash flow, and the scale hits hard: the maximum payout equals nearly 23 quarters at that $784 million pace.

The New York attorney general said the state coalition will collect at least $12.1 billion, with the total potentially reaching $17.1 billion. Meta admitted no wrongdoing. But the company agreed to cap teenage usage, restrict overnight access, reduce notifications and strengthen age and content protections. Reuters placed the broader package of guaranteed and conditional payments near $18 billion.

Meta's second-quarter results delivered $31.86 billion in operating cash flow—but only $784 million remained as free cash flow after $31.08 billion of capital spending. The picture adds a striking valuation twist: Meta's $593.745 share price sits 29.85% below its $846.42 GF Value™ estimate. Meta can absorb the settlement with $90.26 billion in cash and marketable securities, especially as payments unfold over time. Still, the message is sharp: the company is funding an expensive AI future while paying a multibillion-dollar bill for product risks from its past.

Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Bloomberg/Getty Images Get ready to hear Slack notifications if you work at Meta.

The tech giant is switching over from Google Chat to Slack for internal communications, according to a memo its AI chief, Alexandr Wang, sent out this week.

Meta is making the move because it says Slack is better for handling AI agents, the memo reads.

"Slack is the strongest platform available today for agents, which is why we're deciding to make the switch," it says. "Slack has a rich conversational interface for agents, mature developer tooling and strong 3P integrations. While not all of us are building agents today, everyone at the company will benefit from a robust and useful agent ecosystem."

Wang's comment about "strong 3P integrations" refers to third-party integrations, meaning Slack is not only attractive because of the tool itself but because it already has a large range of external tools and AI agents that can plug directly into it.

The move is a major win for Slack owner Salesforce, which has been investing heavily in AI features and products. Salesforce bought Slack for $27.7 billion in 2021.

Meta and Salesforce declined to comment. Google didn't respond to a request for comment.

The migration also shows how Slack has capitalized on the current craze for AI agents. The product has made it easy for users to integrate AI agents into it to automate tasks, request data, and provide teams with updates.

Salesforce's stock has fallen over the past year amid concerns about whether those AI agents will eventually replace the software that many workers use.

The company's stock surged nearly 23% in a single day last week following an expanded partnership with Anthropic and an earnings release reporting strong results, including new annual order growth and rising subscription and support revenue.

"This is not the SaaSpocalypse," Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said. "We've been hearing about this for the last two quarters, these dire predictions about the end of software, and how the models eat everything, but none of them have come true for us."

Have a tip? Contact Meta reporter Charles Rollet securely on Signal at charlesrollet.12 or +1-628-282-2811. Contact Salesforce reporter Ashley Stewart via email at [email protected] or Signal at +1-425-344-8242. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

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Charles Rollet is BI's tech correspondent in San Francisco. Prior to joining BI, Charles worked at TechCrunch covering startups and VC. Charles is based in the Bay Area, where he enjoys hiking with his dogs. You can contact Charles securely on Signal at charlesrollet.12 or +1-628-282-2811.

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Exclusive Meta Salesforce More Slack AI

Daymark Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 114.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 35,435 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,931 shares during the quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $19,960,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. First National Bank Sioux Falls boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. First National Bank Sioux Falls now owns 2,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,321,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. now owns 984 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $649,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. now owns 1,075 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $794,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Acorn Creek Capital LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Acorn Creek Capital LLC now owns 2,118 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,398,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Objective Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Objective Capital Management LLC now owns 553 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $365,000 after buying an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.0% Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $572.34 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $592.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $610.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $790.80.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.The business had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $7.14 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.17 EPS for the current fiscal year. Analysts Set New Price Targets Several brokerages have recently commented on META. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $766.00 to $715.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Arete Research set a $735.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $785.22.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on META

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

Positive Sentiment: Meta’s AI strategy remains a potential long-term catalyst. Analysts point to its roughly $60 billion AI investment program as a way to improve ad targeting, monetization and possibly challenge Google in search and digital advertising. Meta’s $60 Billion AI Machine Could Dethrone Google Search by Year-End Positive Sentiment: Meta-backed Indian telecom operator Jio Platforms received regulatory approval for an initial public offering. A successful listing could provide a valuation reference for Meta’s investment and highlight the value of its strategic holdings. Meta- and Google-backed Indian telecom operator Jio Platforms gets regulatory nod for IPO Positive Sentiment: Some investment commentary describes META as undervalued after its shares fell well below their prior record, citing second-quarter revenue growth of 28% to $60.8 billion and the potential for a recovery. Prediction: Meta Stock Reclaims Its All-Time High Before 2029 Neutral Sentiment: Meta has begun removing fraudulent advertisements in India that used explicit content to distribute malware. The action limits immediate user risk but underscores continuing challenges in ad-quality enforcement and platform trust. Meta removes ads for fraud apps posing as porn after India sounds alarm Negative Sentiment: Meta agreed to an approximately $17 billion to $18 billion settlement with U.S. states over allegations that its platforms harmed children and teens. The agreement requires stronger age verification and other safeguards, creating a substantial financial cost and potentially higher compliance expenses. Explainer: Settlement requires Meta to check young users’ ages Negative Sentiment: Research claiming Temu spent as much as $962 million on advertising tied to fake creators raises additional concerns about content moderation, advertiser oversight and reputational risk on Meta’s platforms. Temu spent up to $962 million on ads that helped finance an army of fake creators on Meta platforms Insider Activity In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,196 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $550.61, for a total value of $5,063,409.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,260,343.46. This represents a 41.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,848 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $558.00, for a total value of $4,379,184.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 828 shares in the company, valued at $462,024. This represents a 90.46% decrease in their position. 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 three months, insiders sold 32,987 shares of company stock worth $19,202,995. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Profile (Free Report)

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.

Further Reading Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms Securing AI: 5 Most-Upgraded Stocks From the Q2 Reporting Season Insiders Are Betting Big on These 3 Healthcare Stocks 3 Stocks for Investors Who Still Believe Cash Is King Dollar General and Dollar Tree Are Recovering, But Not for the Same Reason

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Meta (META.O) ​on Monday removed dozens of advertisements after India flagged a pattern of Facebook ‌and Instagram ads using sexually explicit content to lure users into downloading malware that could steal banking credentials and drain bank accounts.

India recorded nearly $2.4 billion in cyber-fraud losses in 2025, government data shows, as scam operators increasingly ​target the country's digital-payments boom.

The government said ads on Facebook and Instagram operating under ​names such as "Night Play" and "Kyss" directed users to phishing websites. It said it ⁠had observed a rise in financial fraud involving what it described as "malicious Android applications masquerading ​as pornography apps".

Reuters found at least 39 such ads still active after the government advisory was issued ​on Monday, with many of them using sexually explicit video thumbnails to attract clicks. Meta took down all of the ads shortly after Reuters flagged them to the company, seeking comment on the advisory.

Meta did not respond ​to Reuters queries.

Reuters is first to report Meta's removal of the ads following the government ​advisory.

The U.S. technology giant's policies state that ads "must not contain adult nudity and sexual activity". They also prohibit ads ‌for "products, ⁠services, schemes or offers using identified deceptive or misleading practices", including those intended to scam users out of money.

It is the second time in recent weeks that India has raised concerns about financial fraud on a major technology platform. Reuters previously reported that the government directed Google to shut ​down hundreds of accounts on ​its Firebase platform ⁠after finding criminals were using the service to impersonate major banks.

Meta had internally projected that scam and banned goods advertising would generate about 10% of ​its 2024 revenue, or roughly $16 billion, even as the company says it ​is cracking ⁠down on such ads, Reuters reported last year.

One ad, while still active, led to a website promoting a video app that promised hundreds of pornographic videos and round-the-clock content. Access required users to directly ⁠download a ​file named "Movexa.apk" outside an official app store.

India's advisory said ​the apps could secretly access information stored on users' phones, capture one-time passwords and bank PINs, and transfer money from ​accounts without the owner's knowledge.

Six days before the start of a federal trial over online child safety, C.J. Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer, traveled to Nashville on Aug. 6 to meet with lawyers for about a dozen states. He wanted to broker an enormous settlement, two people familiar with the conversation said.

Meta had already suffered losses in court this year over claims it created addictive products that harmed young users. Mark Zuckerberg had endured a full day of grilling on the witness stand during one of those trials. (“You’re mischaracterizing this,” he kept repeating.) He was likely to be questioned again at the federal trial in California, in which a coalition of states had sued Meta, arguing that the company had contributed to a national child mental health crisis.

Over bagels and coffee in an Art Deco office on Tennessee’s Capitol grounds, Mr. Mahoney presented his terms, which Mr. Zuckerberg had personally approved, according to four people familiar with the negotiations. Meta would pay the states up to $19 billion and make changes to its platforms to improve teen safety. Some of the payment would be withheld unless all states joined and other social media companies also settled.

For the states attorney general in the room, the offer was intriguing. They had been negotiating with the Silicon Valley giant for months with little progress, the people said. On Tuesday, 47 states — two had dropped out of the lawsuit — the District of Columbia and several territories agreed to a settlement worth roughly $17 billion.

“There’s a saying here in Tennessee,” Jonathan Skrmetti, the state’s attorney general, said in one of the meetings with nearly all the state attorneys general, encouraging them not to get greedy. “Pigs get fat, and hogs get slaughtered.”

The settlement, one of the largest agreements between a company and a group of states embroiled in litigation, was announced on Wednesday. This account of how it came together is based on a dozen interviews with state leaders, former and current Meta executives, court documents and trial testimony.

Mark Zuckerberg, center, Meta’s chief executive, outside a court in Los Angeles, where he testified in a lawsuit against the company in February. — Mark Abramson for The New York Times
For years, Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, seemed to have an impenetrable defense against child safety lawsuits. The company’s aces were Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 law that protects platforms from liability over what users post on their sites, and the First Amendment, which protects free speech.

But concerns have mounted globally over the harmful effects of social media on children. Australia last year became the first country to bar children under 16 from using social media, and many other countries carried out or are considering similar rules.

In the United States, a flood of online child safety lawsuits have been filed since 2022, and the plaintiffs focused on a new argument claiming that social media sites designed their products in a harmful way that violates consumer protection and other laws.

The suits accused the companies of knowingly creating sites that were as addictive as cigarettes, taking a page from a strategy used against Big Tobacco in the 1990s. Suddenly, relying on Section 230 didn’t look so safe.

A protest by parents against social media platforms outside the courthouse during Meta’s trial in Oakland, Calif., in August. — Noah Berger/Associated Press
At Meta, concern was growing about the cases, according to two people familiar with thinking inside the company.

In January, Meta hired Mr. Mahoney, a veteran litigator who had been general counsel at Microsoft. Mr. Mahoney, who reports directly to Mr. Zuckerberg, took the position of chief legal officer in part because he was attracted to the prospect of negotiating a settlement, one of the people familiar with Meta’s thinking said. He had negotiated complex deals in the past, most notably in 2020 when, as deputy U.S. trade representative, he was a lead negotiator of the Trump administration’s trade deal with Canada and Mexico.

Phil Weiser, the attorney general of Colorado, in Oakland in August. He met with Meta’s chief legal officer in January to begin settlement talks. — Noah Berger/Associated Press
Just days after starting his new job, Mr. Mahoney called Attorney General Phil Weiser of Colorado and Mr. Skrmetti of Tennessee, the lead negotiators for states, to begin settlement talks, four of the people familiar with the conversations said. Mr. Mahoney, who is based in Silicon Valley, flew out to meet them separately in their states. He wanted to explore a grand settlement that would end federal and state cases brought by all of the nation’s attorneys general.

The two sides had held previous talks. But the tenor of the conversations changed because Mr. Mahoney seemed so clearly interested in reaching a resolution.

But a roadblock immediately became apparent because Meta was reluctant to make some changes to its products, three of the people said. That was a nonstarter for many of the state attorneys general.

“We brought these suits because we wanted to protect kids and we wanted to reform the platforms,” Mr. Skrmetti said in an interview. Forcing changes to the platforms “is really the most significant part here.”

Every attorney general was familiar with an instance of a child’s facing harm from social media, Mr. Weiser said in an interview. “The shared commitment to do something was rooted in the pain that all of us recognize, the fears that all of us had,” he added.

The talks dragged. But within weeks, Meta received a harsh reminder of the potential problems ahead.

A young woman identified as K.G.M. took the stand at a trial that began in late January, making accusations that social media companies had created features on their platforms like infinite scroll that had led to her anxiety and depression.

The defendants, Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube, had argued in pretrial hearings that the case should be scrapped because of Section 230. But the judge, Carolyn B. Kuhl of California Superior Court of Los Angeles County, ruled that the case was about product liability, not speech.

The five-week trial was deeply embarrassing for Meta. Mr. Zuckerberg testified for the first time about child safety in front of a jury. He was grilled about allowing millions of underage users on Instagram. Parents who said their children were harmed by social media packed the courtroom. Internal documents presented as evidence showed Meta’s employees comparing themselves to drug pushers.

Simultaneously, New Mexico’s attorney general was trying a case in state court charging Meta with violating consumer protection laws.

Supporters of K.G.M., the plaintiff in the Los Angeles trial that included testimony from Mr. Zuckerberg. — Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Within two days in March, Meta lost both cases. The decisions raised questions about reputational harm that future trials could inflict.

The stakes were getting higher, as Meta and California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey geared up for trial this summer in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland. The states had accused Meta of violating consumer protection laws and child privacy protections, seeking roughly $200 billion in penalties and changes to the company’s platforms.

Mr. Skrmetti and nearly all the other states attorney general had also filed their own cases.

But in the ongoing talks, Meta still wasn’t meeting all the states’ demands on safety features.

On the eve of the Oakland trial, Meta made a last-ditch effort to kill the case. The company asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on July 22 to throw out the social media addiction cases, invoking legal protections under Section 230.

As Meta waited for a decision from the Ninth Circuit, Mr. Mahoney trekked to Tennessee with his $19 billion offer. He left without a deal, but talks continued.

On Aug. 10, the appeals court ruled against Meta. Suddenly the talks sped up, four of the people said. With their new leverage, the states began daily negotiations with Meta’s lawyers in person in Nashville and over video calls, to get final concessions, one of the people said.

As part of the deal, the company agreed to more safety measures. The growing list of platform changes included stopping teenage users from endless scrolling, and imposing a two-hour daily limit on use of Instagram and Facebook. Meta also said it would limit teen use between midnight and 6 a.m. and silence notifications during school hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Meta proposed paying more and increasing limits on how much young users could use its platforms if other social media companies, like TikTok and YouTube, agreed to similar controls for their apps — something that Meta said would keep it from being singled out.

The company wanted to avoid going to trial, and had made it a condition that all the states needed to sign on. But on a video call to discuss the proposed settlement on Aug. 11, some state attorneys general asked if the money was enough and how it would be divided, five people with knowledge of the conversations said.

The states came up with an equation to divvy up the fund based on the size of their populations and the individual charges brought against Meta in each case.

The states’ case in Oakland went to trial last week while they were still negotiating with Meta. On Sunday, the Colorado and Tennessee attorneys general presented a final settlement deal to the other states. They emailed the document with instructions to sign by Tuesday at 6 p.m.

That day, Adam Mosseri. the head of Instagram, testified in Oakland. The states’ plan to call Mr. Zuckerberg to testify was looming.

On Tuesday, every state signed except Texas, Florida and New Mexico, ending the trial. New Mexico had already won its case, and Meta settled with Texas on Wednesday for about $1 billion, offering safety guardrails for young users similar to the multistate agreement.

“Section 230 and the First Amendment are not impenetrable shields to holding Meta accountable,” California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, said in a call with reporters on Wednesday. The states’ settlement shows the limits of the abilities of those laws “to deliver justice and accountability” to “the people, children, families who’ve been harmed by misconduct.”

Mr. Mahoney said in a statement on Wednesday that he was proud of the agreement and the power it gave parents to protect their children.

“But its success depends on all other social media platforms following Meta’s lead,” he said.

Meta still faces thousands of other suits filed by teenagers, families and school districts. The next major personal injury trial is scheduled to be heard in California Superior Court of Los Angeles County in October.

Meta said it was confident it could win the case.

Elevated Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 2,779 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,566,000. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.5% of Elevated Private Wealth LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. RHL Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Advantage Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Axiom Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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

Positive Sentiment: The settlement limits litigation risk by resolving claims from a broad coalition of states without an admission of liability. Analysts view the payment as manageable relative to Meta’s revenue and cash generation, while the company avoids potentially disruptive court-ordered changes to products such as Reels, Stories and its recommendation systems. Meta’s social media settlement leaves its money machine unscathed Positive Sentiment: Meta’s advertising engine continues to benefit from improved ad-ranking technology and growing advertiser use of artificial intelligence to create campaigns, supporting demand even as the company spends heavily on AI infrastructure. Ca$htag$: Meta’s AI Bet Not Showing Returns, Yet Positive Sentiment: Rosenblatt raised its price target to $886 and maintained a buy rating, pointing to substantial potential upside from current levels. The stock’s valuation also remains below that of many large technology peers, strengthening the bargain argument for some investors. Meta price target raised by Rosenblatt Neutral Sentiment: The new teen safeguards—including time limits, muted notifications and stronger parental controls—could become a regulatory template for TikTok, YouTube, Snap and international markets. This creates industrywide compliance costs, but may also give Meta greater legal clarity. Meta settlement puts social media industry on notice Negative Sentiment: Investors still face execution and financial risks: age-verification technology may be unreliable, critics say the protections do not address teen mental-health concerns, and regulators in the U.K., South Korea and elsewhere may demand similar measures. Restrictions could eventually reduce teen engagement and advertising opportunities. Meta’s child-safety deal and age verification Negative Sentiment: Meta’s substantial AI capital spending has not yet produced a proportionate revenue payoff, while an executive overseeing India and Southeast Asia is leaving for OpenAI. Those developments add to concerns about returns on investment and management stability. Meta executive leaves for OpenAI Meta Platforms Stock Performance Shares of META stock opened at $578.02 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $592.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $611.61. The firm has a market cap of $1.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.77, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $790.80. 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 – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% 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 quarter last year, the firm posted $7.14 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes Several brokerages recently weighed in on META. Mizuho set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $763.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Citizens Jmp dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $770.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $883.00 to $886.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $785.22.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on META

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,848 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $558.00, for a total transaction of $4,379,184.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 828 shares in the company, valued at $462,024. This represents a 90.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 1,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total transaction of $754,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,517 shares in the company, valued at $910,200. The trade was a 45.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 34,957 shares of company stock worth $20,442,696 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms (Free Report)

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.

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Meta Platforms (META +1.21%) stock peaked more than a year ago. The record close of $790.00 came on Aug. 12, 2025 (shares briefly traded as high as $796.25 three days later), and the stock, trading for about $579 as of this writing, sits about 27% below that mark.

In between came an expensive year: capital spending plans that kept climbing, a quarter of falling earnings, and a landmark legal settlement.

Here's my prediction anyway. Meta stock closes above that record before 2029.

That call doesn't require the stock's price-to-earnings ratio to rise. Getting back to the record by the end of 2028 requires about 36% appreciation, which works out to about 14% a year. And Meta's core business is already growing considerably faster than that.

Image source: Getty Images.

The ads business is still compounding fastWhatever the stock has done, the advertising business is still compounding fast. Meta's second-quarter revenue rose 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, or 27% on a constant-currency basis. That's a step down from the first quarter's 33% growth, but volume and pricing are both still climbing. Ad impressions increased 14% year over year, while the average price per ad rose 12%. The company's apps now reach 3.60 billion daily active people, up 3%.

Why is the stock down, then? Because the bottom line hasn't kept up.

Costs and expenses in the second quarter jumped 55% year over year to $42.0 billion, dragging its operating margin down to 31% from 43% a year earlier. Diluted earnings per share fell 13% to $6.18.

To be fair, the quarter absorbed $2.4 billion of charges tied to legal proceedings and $1.18 billion of severance from a May headcount reduction -- about $3.6 billion of items that shouldn't repeat. The more durable weight is the build-out itself. Meta expects 2026 capital expenditures of $130 billion to $145 billion for artificial intelligence (AI) and its core business, a range whose floor it raised in July.

Then, last week, Meta agreed to pay up to $16.7 billion to settle claims from a coalition of state attorneys general that it misled the public about its apps' harms to teenagers, plus a separate $1 billion agreement with Texas. It has been a long time since this company gave the market an uncomplicated quarter.

The math, at today's multipleStill, the prediction doesn't need an uncomplicated quarter. It needs math. Shares trade at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of about 17, based on expected 2027 earnings. For the stock to sit at $790.00 at that same valuation multiple, the earnings the market is pricing in would need to be about 36% higher than today's -- mid-teens annual earnings growth between now and the end of 2028. No multiple expansion required.

For a business growing revenue 28%, that could prove a modest ask.

One more charge comes first, though: Meta says it expects to book about $10 billion of legal expense in the third quarter to cover the settlement, a cost it hadn't built into its prior outlook. But charges like that end. The settlement converts an open-ended legal risk into a mostly known number -- about $12.7 billion of a roughly $18 billion package going to the states over 10 years, with the remaining $5.3 billion contingent on rival platforms accepting similar terms. And the severance reflects a company cutting headcount while revenue compounds -- the reported 75,472 still counts about 8,000 people cut in May, most of them gone by the end of this quarter.

The spending has to pay offThe honest risk to this forecast is the same thing that knocked the stock down in the first place. Capital spending of $130 billion to $145 billion this year becomes depreciation for years afterward, and depreciation lands directly on the earnings line.

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If total expenses keep growing anywhere near 55% while revenue grows 28%, earnings won't compound in the mid-teens. They'll keep shrinking, and the math above falls apart. Second-quarter free cash flow of $784 million, down from $8.5 billion a year earlier, shows how much of the profit the build-out is consuming.

But CEO Mark Zuckerberg's claim that "AI is accelerating our core business today" is showing up in the numbers, at least on the revenue line. Ad prices rising 12% while impressions grow 14% is what an effective AI advertising system looks like. The spending has a return attached, and the question is timing.

Will Meta see its record again before 2029?

I believe it will. The required return is about 14% a year, the advertising business is compounding at twice that rate, and the stock's forward price-to-earnings ratio of about 17 is a modest price for this kind of growth.

If 2027 arrives with expenses still growing twice as fast as revenue, I'd rethink the call. Until then, I'd rather own the stock.

New Zealand weighs an under-16 ban. Summary

Platforms could face fines of up to 10% of global revenue.

Meta Platforms Inc. (META, Financials) and Alphabet Inc. may face another regulatory issue. The New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon claimed his party will introduce social media bans for under-16s.

The suggested fines make this crucial for investors. According to Reuters, noncompliant platforms might be fined 10% of global revenue.

The measure would compel corporations to reasonably verify users' ages using account information, face technology, and digital identity documents. That would highlight Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Not only New Zealand would act. Australia banned under-16 social media, a model other countries could follow as kid safety and online addiction concerns grow.

One crucial note. The New Zealand idea is not yet legislation and may not pass. Luxon's coalition partner New Zealand First has opposed the bill. Travel direction matters.

If additional countries adopt age restrictions with substantial financial penalties, social media businesses may face increased compliance costs and fewer ways to entice younger members. Meta and Alphabet may face a wider regulatory risk from a local policy struggle.

Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.

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