Focus Partners Wealth Buys 474,265 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Focus Partners Wealth increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 63.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,219,622 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 474,265 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 0.9% of Focus Partners Wealth’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. Focus Partners Wealth’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $806,412,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of META. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.8% during 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 buying an additional 7,269,279 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 4,395,763 shares during the period. Danske Bank A S bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,191,175,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,874,837 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $9,818,731,000 after buying an additional 1,255,496 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on META shares. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $750.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Benchmark assumed coverage on Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Raymond James Financial upgraded Meta Platforms from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Erste Group Bank cut shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $935.00 to $945.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $840.60.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is expanding its AI infrastructure globally, including a new AI-enabled data center partnership in India with Reliance Industries, reinforcing confidence in its long-term artificial intelligence strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: The company launched Instagram Plus globally, an optional subscription product that could help diversify revenue beyond advertising.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentary from Morgan Stanley, Zacks, and others continued to describe Meta as a high-quality growth and compounder stock, with recent earnings still viewed as strong.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $566.98 on Monday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $796.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market cap of $1.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $621.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $636.05.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The firm had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $6.43 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total value of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,014,978.24. The trade was a 41.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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 the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total value of $4,769,642.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $251,641.62. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 sold a total of 39,170 shares of company stock valued at $24,218,565 in the last three months. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms 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.