Baer Investment Advisory LLC Acquires Shares of 7,652 Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Baer Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 7,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,378,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% in 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 buying an additional 105,154,977 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 7,269,279 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 488.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 4,537,076 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 4,395,763 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on META. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $775.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 30th. Benchmark assumed coverage on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $835.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $840.64.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.0%

NASDAQ:META opened at $603.12 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $598.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $626.99. 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 company has a market cap of $1.53 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $520.26 and a twelve month 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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. The firm had revenue of $56.31 billion for 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $6.43 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.46 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of Meta Platforms 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,443 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,092,483.25. This trade represents a 12.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 dated Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total value 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 represents a 65.03% 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 44,748 shares of company stock valued at $27,565,292. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Trending Headlines about 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.

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.