Counterweight Ventures LLC Buys 931 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Counterweight Ventures LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 41.2% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,191 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 931 shares during the period. Counterweight Ventures LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,826,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. RHL Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Bayban increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 100.0% during the 1st quarter. Bayban now owns 70 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $42,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $603.12 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $598.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $626.99. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $520.26 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta announced it will spend more than C$13 billion on its first AI data center in Canada, its largest outside the U.S. Investors may see this as a signal that Meta is still aggressively scaling its AI infrastructure to support future products and monetization. Meta plans billions for first AI data center in Canada, largest outside the US
• Positive Sentiment: Meta rolled out Muse Image, its first AI image-generation model from Meta Superintelligence Labs, which could improve engagement across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Meta AI while giving advertisers new creative tools. Meta expands generative AI tools with Muse Image rollout
• Positive Sentiment: Several reports and analyst notes highlighted Meta as an attractive AI and momentum stock, including a rating upgrade to Buy from Erste Group Bank and bullish commentary around its long-term growth and capex strategy. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Raised to “Buy” at Erste Group Bank
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta’s move to potentially monetize excess compute capacity or expand into cloud/neocloud services is strategically interesting, but it is still an early-stage idea and not yet a proven earnings driver.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta disclosed that four U.S. states are seeking about $1.4 trillion in penalties in an upcoming youth-safety trial, creating a very large legal risk that could weigh on investor sentiment. Meta says US states are seeking $1.4 trillion in penalties in August youth safety trial
• Negative Sentiment: Separate reporting on Instagram AI sharing rules and other regulatory scrutiny adds to concerns about privacy, content use, and platform oversight.
• Negative Sentiment: Comments from Mark Zuckerberg that AI agent development “hasn’t really accelerated” as expected may also raise questions about the near-term payoff from Meta’s heavy AI spending.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.75, for a total value of $303,875.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 3,443 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,092,483.25. The trade was a 12.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This represents a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 44,748 shares of company stock valued at $27,565,292. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Benchmark began coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $810.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $775.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $840.64.

Meta Platforms 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.