Brown Advisory Inc. Sells 115,191 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Brown Advisory Inc. lessened its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 10.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 977,291 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 115,191 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 0.9% of Brown Advisory Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest position. Brown Advisory Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $645,101,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $132,015,115,000 after buying an additional 7,269,279 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Danske Bank A S bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,191,175,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,874,837 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $9,818,731,000 after buying an additional 1,255,496 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $850.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Benchmark assumed coverage on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Erste Group Bank lowered Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $765.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $760.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $840.60.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,014,978.24. This represents a 41.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the company’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 transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 10,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,645,103.65. This trade represents a 20.83% 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 sold a total of 41,305 shares of company stock valued at $25,567,928 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is expanding its AI infrastructure globally, including a new AI-enabled data center partnership in India with Reliance Industries, reinforcing confidence in its long-term artificial intelligence strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: The company launched Instagram Plus globally, an optional subscription product that could help diversify revenue beyond advertising.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentary from Morgan Stanley, Zacks, and others continued to describe Meta as a high-quality growth and compounder stock, with recent earnings still viewed as strong.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $566.98 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $621.15 and its 200 day moving average is $635.89. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $520.26 and a one year high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The firm has a market cap of $1.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) 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. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The business had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $6.43 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 7.63%.

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.