Meta Platforms, Inc. $META is Giverny Capital Inc.’s 2nd Largest Position

Giverny Capital Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 313,449 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,639 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 6.9% of Giverny Capital Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Giverny Capital Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $206,905,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of META. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $20,230,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,537,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 294.7% in the 1st quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd now owns 150,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $86,454,000 after purchasing an additional 112,000 shares during the last quarter. Dymon Asia Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Finally, Capital & Planning LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $322,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the subject of several research analyst reports. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $760.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $725.00 price target (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $765.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $750.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Arete Research set a $735.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $840.60.

Key Stories 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 Price Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $566.98 on Monday. 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 price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $621.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $636.05. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $520.26 and a 1-year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. The firm had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $6.43 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total transaction of $4,769,642.01. Following the completion of 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This trade represents a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 39,170 shares of company stock valued at $24,218,565 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.53% 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.