Annex Advisory Services LLC Has $62.06 Million Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Annex Advisory Services reduced its Meta Platforms stake by 2.8% in the second quarter, selling 3,131 shares and retaining 110,172 shares valued at approximately $62.06 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 79.91% of Meta’s stock.
• Meta reported quarterly revenue of $60.80 billion, up 28% year over year and above estimates, but earnings per share of $6.18 missed consensus by $1.01. The stock opened at $599.12, while analysts maintained a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $785.32.
• Meta’s AI strategy remains a major growth opportunity through its Muse Glimmer model and advertising improvements, but investors face concerns over rising capital expenditures, regulatory pressure, youth-addiction lawsuits and geopolitical obstacles to its AI expansion.

Annex Advisory Services LLC reduced its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 110,172 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 3,131 shares during the period. Annex Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $62,059,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of META. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $132,015,115,000 after acquiring an additional 7,269,279 shares during the period. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 105,154,977 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 878,396 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 310,947 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $599.12 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $796.25. 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 firm's 50 day moving average is $597.54 and its 200-day moving average is $621.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.57, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.25.

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 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 company had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $7.14 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.91%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price 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. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $780.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $650.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $805.00 to $780.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $785.32.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta released Muse Glimmer, a 30-billion-parameter open-weight AI model designed to run locally on consumer computers. The strategy could accelerate developer adoption, improve Meta’s recommendation and advertising systems, and pressure rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic by making advanced AI more widely available. Meta Muse Glimmer model
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and bullish commentary continue to highlight Meta’s underlying advertising strength. Second-quarter revenue rose about 28% year over year, supported by higher ad impressions and pricing, while WhatsApp monetization and AI-powered business tools provide potential additional growth. Meta valuation and advertising growth
• Positive Sentiment: Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to make AI broadly accessible reinforces Meta’s long-term positioning in consumer AI and could expand engagement across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Zuckerberg AI vision
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta and other leading AI companies will meet White House officials regarding voluntary safety testing for advanced models. The meeting may increase compliance costs, but coordinated standards could reduce longer-term regulatory uncertainty. AI safety discussions
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short-interest data shows zero shares and therefore provides no meaningful indication of bearish positioning.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta will unwind its planned $2 billion acquisition of Chinese AI startup Manus after regulatory pressure from China. The reversal highlights geopolitical obstacles to Meta’s AI expansion and eliminates a potential source of technology and talent. Manus deal unwinds
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that Meta’s 2026 capital expenditures could reach $130 billion to $145 billion. Rapidly rising costs have compressed margins and sharply reduced free cash flow, while analysts have lowered some future EPS forecasts. Meta AI spending and margins
• Negative Sentiment: A major court ruling allows more than 3,000 lawsuits alleging that social-media platforms encouraged addictive use among young people to proceed. The litigation creates potentially significant financial, reputational and regulatory risk for Meta. Youth addiction lawsuits

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $561.56, for a total transaction of $280,780.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,943 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,652,671.08. This represents a 14.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 837 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.85, for a total value of $508,770.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 6,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,823,376.50. This represents a 11.74% 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,715 shares of company stock valued at $22,374,725. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc NASDAQ: META, formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta's core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.

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