Bull Harbor Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 2,837 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,623,000.
Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 period. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its position 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 valued at $69,502,379,000 after acquiring an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $59,963,463,000 after acquiring an additional 4,395,763 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,734,628,000 after acquiring an additional 878,396 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,112,735,000 after purchasing an additional 310,947 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.
Meta Platforms News Roundup
Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Meta’s core advertising business remains strong. Second-quarter revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, while ad impressions, pricing, engagement and AI-powered recommendation tools continued to improve. Advantage+ advertising reportedly reached a $75 billion annualized run rate. Meta: Buy The AI Spending Panic
- Positive Sentiment: Several analysts and investment commentators view the selloff as an opportunity, arguing that Meta’s advertising engine can fund its AI investments and that AI is already improving ad performance, personalization and user engagement. Meta also highlighted potential enterprise AI products, personal AI agents and new applications. Buy Meta’s Earnings Drop
- Positive Sentiment: Despite reductions, major firms retained bullish ratings and price targets, including UBS at $715, Baird at $750, Cantor Fitzgerald at $680 and Rosenblatt at $883. The targets imply substantial long-term upside if Meta converts AI spending into monetization. Meta Given New Price Target at Baird
- Neutral Sentiment: The earnings miss was partly affected by approximately $2.4 billion in legal charges and $1.2 billion in severance costs. Excluding these items, supporters argue that underlying profitability was healthier, but reported margins still declined.
- Negative Sentiment: Meta reported $6.18 in quarterly EPS, below expectations near $7.19, while free cash flow fell to only $784 million from $31.9 billion in operating cash flow as AI data-center capital expenditures surged. Investors remain unconvinced that the spending will generate adequate returns soon. Tech’s AI Buildout Has Ballooning Price Tag
- Negative Sentiment: Future AI-related lease obligations reached $279 billion, increasing concerns about balance-sheet commitments and execution risk. Additional legal and regulatory pressure includes a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging that social-media companies harmed minors, plus an Indian police case involving Meta’s India chief over Facebook posts depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Meta’s AI Splurge Lays Bare Its Compute Conundrum
Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms Price Performance
NASDAQ:META opened at $556.71 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a market capitalization of $1.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.97, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $520.26 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The business’s 50-day moving average is $601.16 and its 200 day moving average is $622.97.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $7.14 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. 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 is currently 7.63%.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Arete Research set a $735.00 target price on Meta Platforms and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Citizens Jmp dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $770.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $780.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $780.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $789.95.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on META
Meta Platforms 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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