Goodman Advisory Group LLC trimmed its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 31.8% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 6,924 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 3,227 shares during the quarter. Goodman Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,962,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Keybank National Association OH lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 15.7% during the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 133,798 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $88,319,000 after purchasing an additional 18,169 shares during the last quarter. WMS Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $876,000. Becker Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Becker Capital Management Inc. now owns 35,052 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $25,741,000 after buying an additional 1,657 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co. now owns 84,059 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $55,487,000 after buying an additional 3,336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 16.2% during the third quarter. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC now owns 6,933 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,091,000 after buying an additional 968 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $850.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They issued an “overweight” rating for the company. UBS Group downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Arete Research set a $735.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued 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 $840.60.
Meta Platforms News Roundup
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.
Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms
In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares in the company, 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 at 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, 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 in the company, valued at approximately $251,641.62. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders 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 Performance
Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $612.91 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $606.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $628.95. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.28, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $520.26 and a one year high of $796.25.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. The firm had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The business’s revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $6.43 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 EPS for the current year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend
The firm also recently announced 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 of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 7.63%.
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.
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