Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Has $240.66 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky trimmed its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.5% to 364,591 shares worth $240,663,000, representing about 1.8% of its portfolio and its 7th largest holding.
• Meta beat Q1 estimates with $10.44 EPS (vs. $6.67 est.) and $56.31 billion revenue (+33.1% YoY), spurring multiple analyst price-target raises and a MarketBeat consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with a $840.31 target.
• Despite strong results, Meta faces legal and regulatory risks — including publisher lawsuits over AI training and ongoing probes — and insiders have sold shares under Rule 10b5-1 plans, totaling 168,193 shares (~$107.6M) in the last three months.

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lowered its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 364,591 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 13,249 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.8% of Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky's portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $240,663,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Fairway Wealth LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 36.8% in the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 78 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the period. Dorato Capital Management bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $62,000. Finally, PMV Capital Advisers LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 26.3% in the 4th quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 96 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on META. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $910.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $890.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $830.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Four equities research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $840.31.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of META stock opened at $612.88 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $796.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $628.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $646.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The company has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.28, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The firm had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $6.43 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 30.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Strong Q1 execution — analysts and coverage emphasize Meta's beat on revenue and EPS and continued ad/margin strength, underpinning investor confidence in cash flow to fund AI investment. Meta: Keep Calm And Focus On Muse, Spark, And Record Revenue Growth
• Positive Sentiment: AI product roadmap — multiple reports (FT/Reuters) say Meta is building advanced, agentic personal AI assistants and consumer-facing agents, reinforcing the company's long-term TAM for AI monetization. This helps justify heavy capex for AI infrastructure. Meta plans advanced 'agentic' AI assistant for users, FT reports
• Positive Sentiment: Capex demand signal from suppliers — a MarketBeat piece highlights Corning's $6B supply deal with Meta as part of hyperscale optical contracts, signaling durable infrastructure spend that supports Meta’s AI buildout. Light Speed Returns: Corning Cashes In on NVIDIA Growth
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider activity — Meta COO Javier Olivan sold shares via a pre-arranged Rule 10b5‑1 plan (reported May 4), reducing his holdings; typical for planned programmatic selling and not an immediate red flag. SEC Filing: Javier Olivan ownership
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst moves — Mizuho trimmed its price target slightly (from $850 to $835) but kept an outperform view, reflecting continued bullishness despite higher AI spending and elevated valuation debate. Benzinga coverage
• Negative Sentiment: Copyright suits and publisher litigation — major publishers (Elsevier, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, etc.) filed suits alleging Meta used copyrighted works to train Llama; litigation could lead to damages or costly settlements and increases model deployment risk. Major publishers sue Meta for copyright infringement over AI training
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory & litigation pressure — Meta asked a judge to overturn a landmark social‑media addiction verdict and faces state actions seeking large damages; EU/Irish probes and potential orders on WhatsApp also raise compliance costs and uncertainty. Meta asks California judge to throw out landmark social media addiction verdict

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $667.00, for a total value of $386,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,847 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,565,949. This represents a 13.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.74, for a total transaction of $562,767.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 7,779 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,727,609.46. This represents a 10.64% 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 have sold 168,193 shares of company stock valued at $107,642,717. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Company 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.