Littlejohn Financial Services Inc. Buys 1,633 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Littlejohn Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 408.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,033 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,633 shares during the period. Littlejohn Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,163,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $69,502,379,000 after acquiring an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 7,269,279 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 488.1% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,466,595 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,608,445,000 after purchasing an additional 4,537,076 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $59,963,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,395,763 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Benchmark initiated coverage on Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $935.00 to $945.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $840.64.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total value of $1,268,023.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $681,890.56. The trade was a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total transaction of $1,748,612.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 10,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,645,103.65. This represents a 20.83% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 39,013 shares of company stock worth $24,115,999. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.0%

META stock opened at $582.88 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $602.79 and a 200 day moving average of $628.20. The firm has a market cap of $1.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $520.26 and a twelve month high of $796.25. 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 released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The business had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $6.43 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is being viewed more favorably by some analysts because its AI-powered ads are reportedly improving advertiser returns, which supports revenue growth and suggests its AI spending is starting to pay off. Meta’s Capex Is Paying Off, But The Market Doesn’t Care
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Meta may rent out excess GPU capacity and build a cloud-computing business are boosting sentiment, since investors see a potential new monetization avenue beyond digital advertising. Meta’s push into cloud computing means Wall Street has to prepare for lower margins
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s broader AI strategy is also getting support from bullish coverage that argues the company is chasing a huge enterprise AI-compute opportunity and could eventually re-rate higher if execution improves. Senior Analyst: Meta Is Chasing A $2 Trillion AI Compute Opportunity, But It’s Years Behind
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta remains a highly followed stock, with traders and analysts continuing to debate whether its AI investment cycle will translate into sustainable earnings growth or just higher spending. Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) Is a Trending Stock: Facts to Know Before Betting on It
• Negative Sentiment: Zuckerberg also acknowledged that Meta’s AI agents are progressing slower than expected, which reinforces investor concerns that some of the company’s ambitious AI initiatives may take longer to monetize. Zuckerberg says AI agent development going slower than expected
• Negative Sentiment: India reportedly asked Meta to delay its WhatsApp username rollout over fraud concerns, creating a potential regulatory hurdle for one of Meta’s most important messaging growth initiatives. India asks Meta to hold WhatsApp username rollout over fraud fears

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.