Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Sold by WealthPLAN Partners LLC

WealthPLAN Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 25.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,325 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,779 shares during the quarter. WealthPLAN Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,047,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Armor Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 5.2% in the first quarter. Armor Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,816 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,900,000 after buying an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. AK Global Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 22.3% during the first quarter. AK Global Asset Management LLC now owns 4,237 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,424,000 after acquiring an additional 772 shares during the last quarter. Fishman Jay A Ltd. MI increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the first quarter. Fishman Jay A Ltd. MI now owns 88,960 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $50,897,000 after acquiring an additional 1,408 shares during the last quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group now owns 1,955 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,119,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Stockton raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,646 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,658,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on META. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $840.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings cut Meta Platforms from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $810.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Wedbush raised Meta Platforms from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $838.26.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s latest AI push is drawing bullish attention, including the launch of Muse Spark 1.1, expanded developer access through its Model API, and reports that the company plans to start producing an in-house AI chip in September. Investors are betting these moves could lower compute costs, reduce reliance on Nvidia and AMD, and open new revenue streams beyond advertising. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Meta is also benefiting from optimism around its cloud and AI infrastructure ambitions, including a new C$13 billion data center in Alberta and commentary that the company may be building a stronger long-term “AI revenue stack” than the market currently prices in. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts and commentators are still constructive on META, with bullish notes saying the stock looks attractively valued relative to its AI growth potential and that recent weakness created an opportunity for long-term investors. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Citizens JMP trimmed its price target to $800 from $825 while maintaining an outperform rating, suggesting continued upside but a slightly more cautious near-term view on valuation and spending. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Meta faces renewed regulatory risk after the European Union said Facebook and Instagram may violate the Digital Services Act with “addictive” design features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, and push notifications, potentially exposing the company to fines and product changes. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Separate reporting also highlighted investor concern that Meta’s aggressive AI capex could pressure margins if monetization takes longer than expected, even though the market is currently rewarding the strategy. Article Title

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $669.21 on Monday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $520.26 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The company has a market cap of $1.69 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $598.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $626.85.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The company had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $6.43 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $8,014,978.24. This trade represents a 41.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 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, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total transaction of $2,012,047.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 9,498 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,708,013.06. This trade represents a 26.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 40,083 shares of company stock valued at $24,628,719. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company 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.