Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Lowered to $750.00 at TD Cowen

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective dropped by stock analysts at TD Cowen from $800.00 to $750.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. TD Cowen’s price target suggests a potential upside of 40.68% from the company’s previous close.

META has been the topic of several other reports. Citigroup reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday. Arete Research set a $735.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Citizens Jmp lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $770.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $800.77.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $52.48 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $533.13. 19,444,531 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,714,834. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $603.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $624.24. The company has a market cap of $1.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.35. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $520.26 and a 1-year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $7.14 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 29.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.75, for a total transaction of $303,875.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,443 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,092,483.25. This trade represents a 12.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal 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 837 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.85, for a total value of $508,770.45. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 6,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Insiders have sold a total of 39,325 shares of company stock valued at $23,979,087 in the last three months. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. 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 buying an additional 7,269,279 shares in the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted 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 worth $69,502,379,000 after acquiring an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew 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 worth $34,734,628,000 after acquiring an additional 878,396 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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: Meta reported revenue of $60.8 billion, up 28% year over year and above Wall Street expectations. Advertising trends remained strong, with ad revenue growth, higher impressions and improved pricing; AI-driven recommendations also helped increase time spent on Instagram. Meta Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts maintained favorable ratings despite lowering price targets. Citizens JMP, Cantor Fitzgerald, Rosenblatt Securities, KeyCorp, Bank of America and Monness Crespi & Hardt still rated the stock market outperform, overweight or buy, with targets ranging from $680 to $883. Analyst Price Target Updates
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish commentators argue Meta’s advertising business can fund its AI investments, while potential leasing of excess computing capacity and expansion into enterprise AI could create additional revenue streams. Meta Potentially Leasing AI Compute
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta is advancing a $14 billion data-center project with BlackRock and is considering how to balance selling computing capacity with reserving it for internal AI models. The strategy could improve returns, but investors want clearer evidence of monetization. Meta’s AI Compute Conundrum
• Negative Sentiment: Second-quarter EPS was $6.18, below the roughly $7.19 consensus and down from $7.14 a year earlier. Legal and severance charges contributed to the miss, while Reality Labs continued to lose more than $4.6 billion. Meta Misses Profit Expectations
• Negative Sentiment: Meta plans approximately $130 billion to $145 billion of 2026 capital spending, with third-quarter revenue guidance of $61 billion to $64 billion below the $63.2 billion analyst estimate. The resulting concern is that AI spending is consuming nearly all operating cash flow without yet demonstrating sufficient returns. Meta and Microsoft Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Wall Street’s broad price-target reductions indicate lower near-term expectations, even though most firms remain bullish. Investors are contrasting Meta’s spending-heavy AI strategy with Microsoft’s clearer evidence that AI investments are generating growth. Why Investors Prefer Microsoft’s AI Spending

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.