4,048 Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Purchased by Puff Wealth Management LLC

Puff Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 4,048 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,280,000. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 2.3% of Puff Wealth Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.4% during the 1st quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 18,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,299,000 after buying an additional 2,670 shares in the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH grew its position in Meta Platforms by 15.7% in the fourth quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 133,798 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $88,319,000 after acquiring an additional 18,169 shares in the last quarter. WMS Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $876,000. Consolidated Investment Group LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 61.2% in the fourth quarter. Consolidated Investment Group LLC now owns 7,900 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,215,000 after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on META shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $750.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen cut Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $725.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $785.32.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $251,641.62. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through 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, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 $681,890.56. This represents a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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 worth $23,314,831 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.4%

NASDAQ META opened at $592.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.30, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $597.62 and a 200-day moving average of $621.71. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $7.14 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.84 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

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.