Ballentine Partners LLC Has $38.74 Million Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Ballentine Partners LLC decreased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 58,690 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 949 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for 0.5% of Ballentine Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $38,741,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 34.2% during the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 52,252 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $38,373,000 after purchasing an additional 13,311 shares during the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 15.7% during the fourth quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 133,798 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $88,319,000 after purchasing an additional 18,169 shares during the last quarter. Becker Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.0% during the third quarter. Becker Capital Management Inc. now owns 35,052 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $25,741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,657 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co. grew its stake 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 valued at $55,487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $5,091,000 after purchasing an additional 968 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s AI and advertising strategy still appears to be generating real business results, with one analysis pointing to strong ad impressions, higher ad prices, and continued revenue growth that could help justify its heavy capital spending. Meta’s Selloff Looks Like A Major Misread
• Positive Sentiment: Meta also announced new parental supervision tools across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Horizon, which could support trust and platform engagement over time. Meta’s new tools allow parents to better supervise their kids’ social media accounts. Will they work?
• Positive Sentiment: Zefr said it is deepening its partnership with Meta by adding AI-powered pre-bid controls to Threads, a sign that advertisers continue building on Meta’s newer products. Zefr Deepens Meta Partnership, Bringing AI-Powered Pre-Bid Controls to Threads Feed
• Neutral Sentiment: Several hedge-fund filings showed mixed investor sentiment, with some managers adding to Meta while others trimmed stakes, offering no clear single-direction signal for the shares. Tiger Global boosts Meta Platforms stake by 336,249 shares
• Negative Sentiment: Meta is starting layoffs affecting about 8,000 employees, roughly 10% of its workforce, and expects the cuts to roll out in waves this week and possibly continue later in the year. Meta layoffs starting this week stress harsh AI reality inside Zuckerberg’s company
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Meta is reorganizing 7,000 employees toward AI and telling workers to stay remote during the layoff process reinforce fears that rising AI investment is creating pressure on headcount and margins. Meta Reassigns 7,000 Employees to Focus on A.I.
• Negative Sentiment: Commentary around Meta’s “brutal” AI spending and large-scale job cuts is fueling concern that capital expenditures are getting too large before investors see enough return. Meta’s 8,000 Job Cuts To Foot The $145B AI Bill

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total value of $1,748,612.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 10,557 shares in the company, valued at $6,645,103.65. This trade represents a 20.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 158,971 shares of company stock valued at $101,676,729. Corporate insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on META shares. Pivotal Research reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Arete Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $1,015.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Erste Group Bank cut shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $840.31.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.5%

META opened at $611.21 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $621.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $638.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.35. The firm has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $520.26 and a twelve month high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The business had revenue of $56.31 billion for 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.65 EPS for the current year.

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.