Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Sold by SmartHarvest Portfolios LLC

SmartHarvest Portfolios LLC decreased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 18.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,665 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,974 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 2.1% of SmartHarvest Portfolios LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. SmartHarvest Portfolios LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,957,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $69,502,379,000 after purchasing an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.8% in 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 buying an additional 7,269,279 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in 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 during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $59,963,463,000 after buying an additional 4,395,763 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $775.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $835.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. 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 report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Arete Research set a $735.00 price target on Meta Platforms and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $840.60.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is being highlighted as a market outperformer, with coverage noting it has exceeded broader market returns, reinforcing the view that investors still see strong fundamentals behind the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Meta and EssilorLuxottica launched a cheaper new line of AI smart glasses starting at $299, which could expand adoption of its wearables strategy and support long-term growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s analyst consensus remains “Moderate Buy,” suggesting Wall Street still sees upside potential despite recent volatility. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple pieces point to Meta being a preferred growth stock for long-term investors, including commentary citing billionaire Dan Loeb’s bullish stance. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage comparing Meta with Snap underscores Meta’s much larger revenue base and more consistent growth, but this is more of a fundamentals refresher than a new catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Google is limiting Meta’s use of Gemini AI models raise a potential constraint on Meta’s access to outside AI compute capacity, which could be a modest headwind for its AI development plans. Article Title

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,014,978.24. This represents a 41.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at 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 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 sale, the chief operating officer owned 10,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,645,103.65. This trade represents a 20.83% decrease in their position. 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 39,013 shares of company stock worth $24,115,999 over the last ninety days. 13.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META opened at $562.60 on Tuesday. 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $609.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $629.84. The firm has a market cap of $1.42 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.45, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $6.43 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.63%.

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.