Meta Platforms, Inc. $META is Janus Henderson Group PLC’s 8th Largest Position

Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 12.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,915,124 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 781,843 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.9% of Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,939,422,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its position in Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% during the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $69,502,379,000 after acquiring an additional 105,154,977 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased 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 worth $3,608,445,000 after purchasing an additional 4,537,076 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased 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 worth $59,963,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,395,763 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares in the company, valued at $681,890.56. This represents a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total value of $2,012,047.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,708,013.06. This represents a 26.06% 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. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 39,325 shares of company stock valued at $23,979,087. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $556.71 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $601.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $622.97. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a market cap of $1.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.97, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). The business had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.The business’s revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $7.14 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were 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 was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 7.63%.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s core advertising business remains strong. Second-quarter revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, while ad impressions, pricing, engagement and AI-powered recommendation tools continued to improve. Advantage+ advertising reportedly reached a $75 billion annualized run rate. Meta: Buy The AI Spending Panic
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts and investment commentators view the selloff as an opportunity, arguing that Meta’s advertising engine can fund its AI investments and that AI is already improving ad performance, personalization and user engagement. Meta also highlighted potential enterprise AI products, personal AI agents and new applications. Buy Meta’s Earnings Drop
• Positive Sentiment: Despite reductions, major firms retained bullish ratings and price targets, including UBS at $715, Baird at $750, Cantor Fitzgerald at $680 and Rosenblatt at $883. The targets imply substantial long-term upside if Meta converts AI spending into monetization. Meta Given New Price Target at Baird
• Neutral Sentiment: The earnings miss was partly affected by approximately $2.4 billion in legal charges and $1.2 billion in severance costs. Excluding these items, supporters argue that underlying profitability was healthier, but reported margins still declined.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta reported $6.18 in quarterly EPS, below expectations near $7.19, while free cash flow fell to only $784 million from $31.9 billion in operating cash flow as AI data-center capital expenditures surged. Investors remain unconvinced that the spending will generate adequate returns soon. Tech’s AI Buildout Has Ballooning Price Tag
• Negative Sentiment: Future AI-related lease obligations reached $279 billion, increasing concerns about balance-sheet commitments and execution risk. Additional legal and regulatory pressure includes a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging that social-media companies harmed minors, plus an Indian police case involving Meta’s India chief over Facebook posts depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Meta’s AI Splurge Lays Bare Its Compute Conundrum

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on META. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $766.00 to $715.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Monness Crespi & Hardt lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $890.00 to $730.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $700.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. Wedbush reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $671.00 to $595.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $750.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $789.95.

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.