Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Purchases 9,646 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its Meta Platforms stake by 2.6% in the first quarter, buying 9,646 additional shares. The fund now holds 374,237 shares valued at about $214.1 million, making Meta its 7th largest position.
• Meta reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $10.44 versus $6.67 expected and revenue of $56.31 billion, both topping estimates. Revenue rose 33.1% year over year, and analysts now expect full-year EPS of 29.42.
• The stock has been under some pressure despite the earnings beat, and recent headlines include insider selling plus ongoing legal scrutiny around AI-related layoffs. Analysts remain mostly bullish overall, with a consensus Moderate Buy rating and average price target of $830.45.

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 2.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 374,237 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 9,646 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.7% 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 $214,112,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its stake 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 worth $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $132,015,115,000 after acquiring an additional 7,269,279 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 488.1% during the fourth 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 during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Meta Platforms by 5.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 4,395,763 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.8%

Shares of META stock opened at $646.01 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.63 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $603.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $627.00.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. The business had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $6.43 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of the 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 directly owned 9,498 shares in the company, valued at $5,708,013.06. This represents a 26.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.75, for a total transaction of $303,875.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,443 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,092,483.25. This trade represents a 12.68% 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 have sold 39,503 shares of company stock valued at $24,241,859 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.53% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is reportedly in early talks to lease computing power to Anthropic in a potential deal worth up to $10 billion. Investors view that as a possible new revenue stream that would help Meta monetize its AI infrastructure and validate demand for its computing capacity. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Meta also unveiled its newest AI model, Muse Spark 1.1, and the company is reportedly considering a broader cloud push. Together, those moves reinforce the idea that Meta can turn heavy AI spending into products and services that generate returns. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive on Meta’s earnings outlook, with Erste Group raising its FY2027 EPS estimate and maintaining a Buy rating. That adds to the bullish case heading into the next earnings report. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: A federal judge declined to block Meta from laying off workers who filed an AI discrimination lawsuit. The ruling removes an immediate legal obstacle, but the underlying claims over alleged bias in AI-driven job cuts still create headline risk. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Meta is also facing scrutiny from employees over AI-assisted layoffs, with allegations that its tools discriminated against protected groups. That could keep legal and reputational pressure on the stock. Article Title

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. UBS Group reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $865.00 to $766.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 13th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from an "underperform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Arete Research set a $735.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $767.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $830.45.

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.

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