META Analysis: Ad Monopoly Printing 82% Gross Margins Funds a Massive AI Bet — But Insiders Are Selling Into Strength
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) stands at a fascinating crossroads. Trading at $648.18 with a $1.63 trillion market cap, the company just closed a fiscal year in which it generated roughly $201 billion in revenue — a figure that would have seemed implausible when Mark Zuckerberg pivoted to "Meta" in late 2021. The stock sits 19% below its 52-week high of $796.25, pulled back from the euphoria of mid-2025 but still commanding a 27.6x trailing P/E that reflects enormous confidence in the advertising machine underneath. The Q4 2025 results crystallized the central tension in the Meta thesis: a $59.9 billion revenue quarter with 81.8% gross margins and 41.3% operating margins, paired with capital expenditures running at 35.7% of revenue as the company pours tens of billions into AI infrastructure. Meta is simultaneously the most profitable advertising business on earth and one of the most aggressive capital deployers in technology history. The question for investors is whether the AI spending is a visionary bet that compounds the ad monopoly or a potential drag on the returns engine. Adding another layer of complexity, CFO Susan Li sold 55,702 shares at $633.61 in recent weeks, and multiple billionaire investors have been trimming positions — even as institutional buyers step in to accumulate shares on the pullback. This divergence between insider selling and institutional buying demands careful analysis of what each side of the trade is seeing.