Brown Advisory Inc. Lowers Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Brown Advisory Inc. cut its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 10.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 977,291 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 115,191 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 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 & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at 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 valued at $132,015,115,000 after acquiring an additional 7,269,279 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position 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 during the last quarter. Danske Bank A S purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,191,175,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 1,255,496 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total value of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,014,978.24. This trade represents a 41.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $681,890.56. The trade was 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. Insiders sold 41,305 shares of company stock valued at $25,567,928 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms News Summary

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

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $566.98 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $621.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $635.89. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $520.26 and a 1-year high of $796.25. 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 current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $6.43 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. TD Cowen decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $850.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised Meta Platforms from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $840.60.

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.