Meta Platforms, Inc. $META is Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA’s 10th Largest Position

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 10.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 275,337 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 32,334 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 2.6% of Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $153,054,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of META. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $132,015,115,000 after acquiring an additional 7,269,279 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% in the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $69,502,379,000 after acquiring an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 4,395,763 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,734,628,000 after purchasing an additional 878,396 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $26,112,735,000 after purchasing an additional 310,947 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Meta is developing a cloud business to sell excess AI computing capacity and AI model access lifted the stock, since it could turn prior AI spending into near-term revenue and reduce reliance on ads.
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street reaction has been broadly constructive, with traders rotating into Meta while some AI infrastructure rivals sold off on fears of new competition from a company with major scale and cash flow.
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta also named Alex Schultz as its first chief data officer and promoted Denise Moreno to chief marketing officer, a management change aimed at improving data-driven decision-making in the AI era.
• Neutral Sentiment: Unusually heavy call-option activity showed traders positioning for more upside, reinforcing the market’s bullish tone but not changing the fundamental story by itself.
• Negative Sentiment: Separately, Meta lost a bid to dismiss a multistate lawsuit alleging Facebook and Instagram are addictive to children, keeping a legal overhang in place.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 8.8%

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $612.91 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $520.26 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $606.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $628.95. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. The business had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The business’s revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $6.43 EPS. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Wedbush raised Meta Platforms from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $775.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 30th. Finally, Benchmark began coverage on Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $840.60.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $251,641.62. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total transaction of $1,268,023.68. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This represents a 65.03% 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. Insiders have sold 39,013 shares of company stock valued at $24,115,999 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

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.