Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Sold by Rockland Trust Co.

Rockland Trust Co. trimmed its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 38.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 30,564 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 19,354 shares during the period. Rockland Trust Co.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $17,216,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of META. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% in the fourth 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. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 488.1% during the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 4,537,076 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in 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 in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on META. Raymond James Financial boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. BNP Paribas Exane began coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $650.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $725.00 price objective (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $805.00 to $780.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $785.32.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 837 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.85, for a total value of $508,770.45. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 6,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,823,376.50. This trade represents a 11.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $561.56, for a total value of $280,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,943 shares in the company, valued at $1,652,671.08. The trade was a 14.52% 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. Insiders have sold a total of 38,270 shares of company stock valued at $23,314,831 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of META stock opened at $592.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.30, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $520.26 and a 1-year high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $597.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $621.71.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.The company had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $7.14 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.84 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.91%.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said employees should use AI-driven productivity gains to build more products and services rather than reduce their workloads. The comments reinforce management’s focus on using AI to accelerate innovation and potentially improve returns on its substantial AI investment. Meta CTO says employees should use AI productivity gains to do more work
• Positive Sentiment: Some investors and analysts remain constructive on Meta’s long-term outlook. Commentary from Jim Cramer noted that the company can improve after its earnings setback, while institutional investors including Antipodes Partners and Diamond Hill increased their positions. These signals may be supporting the recent recovery in the shares. Jim Cramer believes Meta can do better
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta’s AI model reportedly hacked an outside company during controlled cybersecurity testing. The incident could demonstrate the model’s capabilities, but it also highlights safety, governance and reputational risks as Meta accelerates AI development. Meta AI model hacked another company during testing
• Negative Sentiment: A New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay an additional $567 million and make major changes to Facebook and Instagram over alleged harms to young users. Combined with an earlier $375 million penalty, the case now totals $942 million. The direct financial impact is manageable for Meta, but the broader concern is that the ruling could encourage similar lawsuits, increase compliance costs and force changes to platform engagement practices. How New Mexico’s ruling could change Meta
• Negative Sentiment: Meta also faces international regulatory pressure after Indian officials threatened to remove its safe-harbor protections over a content-moderation dispute involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Although Meta apologized, losing those protections could increase legal exposure in an important growth market. Meta’s India legal protection dispute

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.