NasdaqGS · Communication Services

Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) Stock

Market closedLatest regular-session print

$543.67

▼ -$25.30(-4.45%)4:00 PM ET - vs previous closei

Quote as of Aug 18, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT

After-hours NasdaqGS quote as of Aug 18, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT. Extended-hours prices can sit outside the regular-session range.

Market data source

Today3%

$543.21L Aug 18 '26$560.66H Aug 18 '26

52-week9%

$520.26L Mar 27 '26$790.80

Long-term rangesAll-time

All-time(2012-05-18)68%

$17.55L Sep 4 '12$796.25H Aug 15 '25

Chart

META price action

Latest 1D session

Open $557.31High $560.66Low $543.21

Trade access

Where to trade META

Partner links

RobinhoodFractional Interactive BrokersPro traders PublicBeginner friendly WebullNo-commission

Affiliate disclosure: TECHi may earn a commission on links to broker partners. Read more.

Investor playbook

META: Risk-first read

The downside checks deserve priority before a fresh entry.

Use it for

Entry timing, risk check, and catalyst scan

Bull case

What has to keep working for US investors to stay interested.

Cash yield

3.0%

$40.98B free-cash-flow base.

Bear case

Where the dashboard says the thesis can break or get crowded.

Multiple expanding

+23.6%

Forward P/E sits above trailing — consensus expects earnings to fall from here.

Trend pressure

-13.0%

Price is materially below the 200-day average.

Watch next

Catalysts and positioning checks that are not duplicate live-pulse metrics.

Latest catalyst

SeekingAlpha

Wall Street Lunch: Meta Faces High-Stakes Federal Trial Over Child Safety

The playbook is derived from quote, analyst, financial, news, and trend snapshots. It is a research workflow aid, not a buy or sell recommendation.

As of Aug 18, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT, Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) traded at $543.67, a -4.45% move versus the prior close, ranging between $543.21 and $560.66 intraday, and on volume of 26.55M shares. The stock has traded between $520.26 and $790.80 over the past 52 weeks, carries a market capitalization of $1.39T, trades at 20.46x trailing earnings, and yields 0.4% in dividends. Sell-side analysts rate META Buy across 71 ratings and carry an average price target of $754.14 (+38.71% implied versus the last quote). META's record close stands at $796.25, set on Aug 15, 2025.

What Matters Now

TECHi Intelligence

QUICK READ

Meta Platforms, Inc. — Cautiously optimistic

NasdaqGS / Communication Services / Media

Buy analyst tone. Latest catalyst: Wall Street Lunch: Meta Faces High-Stakes Federal Trial Over Child Safety (SeekingAlpha). TECHi maps META to 2 AI leaders and 1 major AI products, making the AI-infrastructure angle visible beside the quote. Fairly valued relative to growth.

Why this viewSignals

Analyst view

Buy · 71 analysts

12-month consensus target: $754.14+38.7%

Disagreement spread: 77%

AI links

2 leaders · 1 products

Based only on the available fresh signals shown above. Not investment advice.

Forward Outlook

Forward model

Balanced watch

Balanced watch. Risk brake (72/100) is the strongest signal; technical tape (39/100) is the main constraint. Model confidence is 56/100 — some inputs are unavailable, so treat this as a directional research screen rather than a forecast. Long-term secular context is tracked separately: 10 Years +341% total; yesterday -4.4%. Comparable past signals have verified against subsequent prices 16.3% of the time.

/100

Top Horizon Signal

Next trading day (1D horizon) — Hold

Volatility-scaled expected -0.3% over the next session based on the forward factor model; confidence 44/100.

Volatility weightBeta 1.24

Expected-return math is scaled by beta and realized volatility before confidence is applied.

Volume weight1.50x avg

Short-horizon expected moves are volume-weighted so thin moves get less credit than confirmed tape.

Macro / sectorCommunication Services

Sector momentum is included beside the broader market regime.

TECHi Thesis

META strategic watchlist

Evergreen business strategy points migrated from /meta-stock/ for the quote page research layer.

The Meta pillar content is now integrated into /quote/META/: ad dominance, Llama, AI infrastructure spending, legal risk, and smart-glasses optionality.

Meta is a social advertising, messaging, AI, and mixed-reality company. The stock thesis weighs one of the strongest ad businesses in the world against AI capex, social-media legal exposure, Reality Labs losses, and the Llama ecosystem.

Synthesized from TECHi strategic coverage, quote-page model inputs, and CMS-managed research notes. Not investment advice.

Market Data & Peers

Key valuation and profitability

Market cap

$1.39T

Size · Market data source · Aug 19

P/E (TTM)

20.46

Valuation · Market data source · Aug 19

Forward P/E

25.30

Valuation · Market data source

PEG ratio

1.10

Valuation · Market data source

Net margin

29.84%

Profitability · Market data source

Return on equity

29.73%

Profitability · Market data source

More ratios7 fields

Enterprise value	$1.61T
Price / sales	6.63
Price / book	5.79
Operating margin	38.08%
Return on assets	15.13%
EPS (TTM)	$26.57
Beta (5Y)	1.24

Snapshot data; period detail may vary by provider and filing cadence.

Benchmark context

Compare against its sector ETF and the broad market.

StandaloneMETASector viewQQQ Nasdaq-100 ETF Macro viewQQQ Nasdaq-100

Peers & Comparables— People also watching(8)

MSFT+0.27%

Microsoft Corp.

$481.63

Relative strength+4.71 pts vs META

AMZN-0.71%

Amazon.com Inc.

$259.45

Relative strength+3.73 pts vs META

GOOGL+0.06%

Alphabet Inc. (A)

$344.20

Relative strength+4.50 pts vs META

ORCL-2.63%

Oracle Corp.

$142.79

Relative strength+1.81 pts vs META

More covered peers+4

NVDANVIDIA Corp.$219.74 · -2.34%CBRSCerebras Systems$220.01 · -12.69%BABAAlibaba Group$128.15 · +2.76%SPOTSpotify Technology$516.28 · +4.83%

Peer links for META. Price and change data appear only when the market-data provider returns them. Relative strength compares the peer session move with META when both sources include a change percentage; comparative model scores, quant rankings, and sector context are source-attributed.

Help · FAQ

META stock FAQ

5 answers covering latest price, analyst view, leadership, and sector context.

5 Q&A

What is the latest META price on TECHi?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) was last quoted at $543.67 as of Aug 18, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT. That price was -4.45% versus the prior session's close.

What is the analyst consensus on META?

Analysts rate META as Buy. Based on 71 sell-side analysts tracked.

Who is the CEO of Meta Platforms, Inc.?

Mark Zuckerberg leads Meta Platforms, Inc., headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

What sector is Meta Platforms, Inc. in?

Meta Platforms, Inc. operates in the Communication Services sector — Media industry.

How does Meta Platforms, Inc. fit the Core AI platforms trade?

TECHi groups Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) under Core AI platforms: Hyperscalers and AI platform companies where AI is central to the equity story.

TECHi Coverage

TECHi articles and Two Takes linked to META. Full feed on the META news page.

AI Links

AI Economy Connections

Key AI Leaders

Yann LeCun Mark Zuckerberg

Connected AI Products

Llama

META has meaningful exposure in TECHi’s AI Power Map — connected to key leaders and products driving the current cycle.

TECHi displays provider-supplied values only when the corresponding field is present.

Catalyst checklist

META links

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