Engle Capital Management L.P. Cuts Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Engle Capital Management L.P. lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 61.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 6,500 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 10,471 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.3% of Engle Capital Management L.P.’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Engle Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,719,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Evelyn Partners Asset Management Ltd raised its position in Meta Platforms by 3.1% in the first quarter. Evelyn Partners Asset Management Ltd now owns 5,783 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,309,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the period. Evelyn Partners Investment Management LLP boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 11.9% in the first quarter. Evelyn Partners Investment Management LLP now owns 120,243 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $68,795,000 after acquiring an additional 12,786 shares during the last quarter. Evelyn Partners Investment Management Services Ltd grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the 1st quarter. Evelyn Partners Investment Management Services Ltd now owns 34,145 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $19,535,000 after acquiring an additional 4,071 shares during the period. JAT Capital Mgmt LP bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $12,648,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.0% during the 1st quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,017,628 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,726,379,000 after purchasing an additional 437,541 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, exceeding Wall Street expectations, while advertising demand, impressions, pricing and AI-powered recommendations remained strong. Instagram time spent also grew by double digits. META’s Q2 Earnings Miss Estimates, Revenues Rise Y/Y on Ad Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts retained bullish ratings despite reducing price targets. UBS, Baird, Citi, Truist and other firms still see substantial upside, suggesting the selloff may have improved Meta’s valuation appeal if advertising growth continues. Analyst price-target updates
• Positive Sentiment: Management said AI is improving ad performance, content recommendations and enterprise products, while new applications and potential AI-agent businesses could create additional monetization opportunities. META Q2 Earnings Call Highlights AI Expansion Strategy
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta is exploring ways to lease or sell excess computing capacity, including possible enterprise AI opportunities. This could generate revenue from infrastructure investment, but the company must balance external sales with its own model-development needs. Zuckerberg lays out Meta’s AI capacity dilemma
• Negative Sentiment: Adjusted earnings were $6.18 per share, well below estimates near $7.2 and down from $7.14 a year earlier. Legal expenses of about $2.4 billion and severance costs of roughly $1.2 billion contributed to the miss, but operating expenses also rose substantially.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta maintained an aggressive AI investment plan, forecasting 2026 capital expenditures of $130 billion to $145 billion. Operating cash flow of $31.9 billion was almost entirely consumed by capital spending, leaving approximately $784 million after capex. Meta Generated $31.9 Billion in Operating Cash Flow Last Quarter
• Negative Sentiment: Future lease obligations, largely tied to AI data centers, rose 53% in three months to $279 billion. Investors are questioning whether advertising growth and future AI services will generate adequate returns on this commitment. Meta’s future AI data center lease obligations
• Negative Sentiment: Third-quarter revenue guidance of $61 billion to $64 billion was viewed as soft relative to the $63.2 billion consensus, reinforcing concerns that spending and margin pressure may persist. Reality Labs also posted a loss exceeding $4.6 billion.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta’s weakness contrasted with Microsoft’s strong Azure and Copilot results, which gave investors clearer evidence that AI spending is producing returns. This comparison intensified the market’s skepticism toward Meta’s less-defined AI monetization timeline. Meta tanks nearly 9%, Microsoft jumps 8% as the AI trade splits Big Tech

Meta Platforms Stock Down 8.0%

META opened at $539.03 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $602.23 and a 200 day moving average of $623.44. The company has a market cap of $1.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $520.26 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 34.81%. The business had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $7.14 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.4 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 7.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,014,978.24. The trade was a 41.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total value of $4,769,642.01. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 414 shares in the company, valued at $251,641.62. This trade represents a 94.99% 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 39,325 shares of company stock valued at $23,979,087 in the last ninety days. 13.53% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of research reports. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $650.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $725.00 price target (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have assigned a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $789.95.

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.