Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Sold by Summit Global Investments

Summit Global Investments lessened its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.1% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 22,069 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 2,221 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises 0.7% of Summit Global Investments’ portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Summit Global Investments’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $12,626,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. RHL Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Bayban increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 100.0% during the 1st quarter. Bayban now owns 70 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: A new free verification badge system for Facebook users, which may improve trust and platform quality. Fast Company article
• Positive Sentiment: A dedicated Marketplace seller app with tools for merchants, aimed at making Facebook commerce more useful and organized. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street commentary remained constructive, with articles highlighting Meta as a strong momentum stock and a potentially attractive AI-era value name.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment stayed favorable, including a report that Wells Fargo raised its price target on Meta to $835.00.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on META shares. Wolfe Research decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 10th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $850.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings cut Meta Platforms from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $725.00 price objective (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $835.64.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $595.19 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The business’s 50 day moving average is $604.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $625.76. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.64, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $6.43 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.49 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider owned 1,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This represents a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $4,769,642.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $251,641.62. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their position. 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 37,948 shares of company stock valued at $23,184,319. 13.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.