Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. Buys 1,795 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Posted by Stanley Muller on Aug 12th, 2026

Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 31.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,505 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 1,795 shares during the period. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,227,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its holdings 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 valued at $69,502,379,000 after acquiring an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $132,015,115,000 after purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 488.1% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,466,595 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,608,445,000 after purchasing an additional 4,537,076 shares during the last quarter. 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 valued at $59,963,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,395,763 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at $8,014,978.24. This represents a 41.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 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 Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total transaction of $4,769,642.01. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $251,641.62. This represents a 94.99% 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 36,715 shares of company stock worth $22,374,725 in the last 90 days. 13.53% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of META stock opened at $599.12 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.57, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $597.54 and a 200-day moving average of $621.56. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $520.26 and a 1-year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). The company had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $7.14 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on META. Barclays reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $780.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $805.00 to $780.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $640.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $650.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Four 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $785.32.

View Our Latest Report on META

About Meta Platforms

(Free Report)

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.