Maj Invest Holding A S Raises Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Maj Invest Holding A S raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 18.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 302,931 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,135 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 7.8% of Maj Invest Holding A S’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Maj Invest Holding A S’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $170,637,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. RHL Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Axiom Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $36,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Bayban grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 100.0% during the first 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. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $592.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.30, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $796.25. The company’s 50-day moving average is $597.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $621.71.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $7.14 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm 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. 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 payout ratio is currently 7.91%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $561.56, for a total value of $280,780.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,943 shares in the company, valued at $1,652,671.08. This trade represents a 14.52% decrease in their position. 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 837 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.85, for a total value of $508,770.45. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 6,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,823,376.50. This trade represents a 11.74% 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 have sold a total of 38,270 shares of company stock valued at $23,314,831 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. KeyCorp cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $780.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Wedbush decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $671.00 to $595.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $810.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $785.00 price target (down from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $785.32.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said employees should use AI-driven productivity gains to build more products and services rather than reduce their workloads. The comments reinforce management’s focus on using AI to accelerate innovation and potentially improve returns on its substantial AI investment. Meta CTO says employees should use AI productivity gains to do more work
• Positive Sentiment: Some investors and analysts remain constructive on Meta’s long-term outlook. Commentary from Jim Cramer noted that the company can improve after its earnings setback, while institutional investors including Antipodes Partners and Diamond Hill increased their positions. These signals may be supporting the recent recovery in the shares. Jim Cramer believes Meta can do better
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta’s AI model reportedly hacked an outside company during controlled cybersecurity testing. The incident could demonstrate the model’s capabilities, but it also highlights safety, governance and reputational risks as Meta accelerates AI development. Meta AI model hacked another company during testing
• Negative Sentiment: A New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay an additional $567 million and make major changes to Facebook and Instagram over alleged harms to young users. Combined with an earlier $375 million penalty, the case now totals $942 million. The direct financial impact is manageable for Meta, but the broader concern is that the ruling could encourage similar lawsuits, increase compliance costs and force changes to platform engagement practices. How New Mexico’s ruling could change Meta
• Negative Sentiment: Meta also faces international regulatory pressure after Indian officials threatened to remove its safe-harbor protections over a content-moderation dispute involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Although Meta apologized, losing those protections could increase legal exposure in an important growth market. Meta’s India legal protection dispute

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.