I have one transaction to cover to close out last month. It was a sale that I made in early September… at the same time I made my last set of moves.
The sale was not a complete exit of the position, but rather a trim. In my last Portfolio Thoughts post I mentioned this trim, but had yet to post all the details about it. Well, that time has come.
At the time I trimmed the position, I unloaded my most expensive shares, hoping to buy them back at a lower price. Well, the price shot up about 1 week later, leaving me with the possibility that I won’t get to achieve that goal. Now I’m left to decide if I just exit the position all together, as my remaining position is quite small – currently my 4th smallest.
I think my Portfolio is better off with this stock as part of it, as it provides a nice growth element. I’m also underweight in the Communication Services sector, where this stock resides. I’ll try to be patient before I reinvest the sale proceeds, as perhaps the stock dips in the next few weeks, giving me the chance to buy it again at the lower price I was hoping for.
The stock has a very low dividend yield, so the trim didn’t affect my forward dividend income much.
Here are the details for this Portfolio transaction…
Meta Platforms (META)
I initiated my position in META at the end of October 2025, at $655/share, shortly after its stock price took a dive. Factors causing the dive at that time included concerns over META’s escalating AI spending, monetization concerns surrounding that spending, and some profit-taking after a run-up in price in the prior 6 months.
Unfortunately, I appears I was early in establishing my position, as the stock traded lower in the following 2-3 weeks. The price recovered, but drifted lower in the months that followed, generally trading around the $600 level for most of this past year.
About 3 weeks before I trimmed, META was trading under $550. So, when the price jumped up to $655 in short order, I thought I’d have my chance to execute my plan… unload my initial shares and buy them back at a lower price once the stock price retreated after its run-up.
Instead, about a week later, META rose sharply on news of 1) good early traction with regard to user adoption of its ‘Muse’ AI agent, and 2) a significant analyst upgrade.
META is currently looking reasonably valued to me. Thus, I could argue that buying back shares at the current level north of $720 is fine. However, I’m willing to risk letting the stock go higher in hopes that it instead temporarily dips below $655 and lets me buy at that lower price I was looking for.
On 9/9/26, I sold 10 shares of META at $655.05/share. The sale proceeds were $6,550.37 after the $0.13 SEC fee.
At my sale price, shares of META yielded 0.32%. This yield is more than two full percentage points lower than my current Portfolio yield of 2.65%.
With this sale, I realized a tiny short-term capital gain of $0.37. I sold my most expensive shares, the initial shares I bought back on 10/31/25.
My annual forward dividend income wasn’t impacted much by the trim, dropping only $21. I suspect I can recoup the lost income without too much trouble.
My META position size was reduced by over 62%. I still own 6.013 shares though. However, the reduction in position size moved META into the Bottom 10 of my Portfolio rankings, and it’s now my 4th smallest Portfolio holding, as noted earlier.
Summary
I needed to post about my last transaction from September. I trimmed Meta Platforms (META) with the hope that I could buy back the stock at a lower price (thus lowering my cost basis).
Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out to plan… yet. The stock rose shortly after my sale and will now require close to a 10% drop in price for my plan to work out.
I trimmed the most expensive shares in my position, which happened to be the 10 shares that made up my initial purchase back on Halloween, 2025.
The trim only put a small dent in my annual forward dividend income, as META shares only yielded 0.32% at the time of my trim.
The trim resulted in a net withdrawal of $6,550.37 from my Portfolio, and my annual forward dividend income decreased by $21.
I recorded a short-term capital gain of only $0.37, as the shares I sold were just slightly higher in price than when I bought them nearly a year ago.
The trim moved META into the Bottom 10 of my Portfolio ranks… currently it’s my 4th smallest position.
With a few META shares still remaining in my Portfolio, the number of stocks/funds in my Portfolio remained unchanged at 57.
Are you a META shareholder? Has the stock come too far, too fast with its recent price rise? Is the AI spending META does within reason? I look forward to your comments!