Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Director Sells 500 Shares

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Director Robert Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.75, for a total value of $303,875.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,443 shares in the company, valued at $2,092,483.25. The trade was a 12.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 3.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded up $17.39 during trading on Monday, hitting $600.29. 17,211,736 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,616,373. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.52 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.25. 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 fifty day moving average price of $602.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $628.06.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The company had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $6.43 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 7.63%.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Investors are optimistic that Meta’s heavy AI spending could pay off if the company turns excess compute capacity into a cloud-like business, potentially opening a new revenue stream. Meta Platforms’ New Cloud Business Could Be a Game Changer for Its Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and bullish commentators are highlighting Meta’s AI infrastructure buildout as a long-term competitive advantage, with some arguing the market may be underestimating the payoff from its large capex push. Why Wall Street Is Fired Up About Earnings—and Why There May Be Some Concern
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s Threads app has reportedly grown to 500 million users, reinforcing confidence in the company’s ability to keep expanding engagement across its social ecosystem. How Meta’s Threads Became as Popular as X
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are positioning ahead of Meta’s upcoming earnings report, with market focus on whether strong ad demand and AI spending can continue to support growth. What you need to know ahead of Meta Platforms’ earnings release
• Negative Sentiment: Meta is facing renewed regulatory pressure in India after authorities demanded removal of child-abuse-related content from Instagram, adding to concerns about platform safety and moderation risks. Meta’s woes deepen in India as child abuse ads on Instagram draw government ire
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Meta is restricting engineers from using rival AI tools like Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s Codex underscore the intensity of its AI race, but also highlight internal concern around data security and development controls. Here’s Why Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) is Restricting Engineers from Using Anthropic’s Claude

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group cut Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $1,015.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $900.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $840.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $850.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $840.64.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its position in Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% during 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 period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 worth $132,015,115,000 after purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 488.1% in 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 buying an additional 4,537,076 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position 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 valued at $59,963,463,000 after buying an additional 4,395,763 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.