Meta Platforms, Inc. $META is United Asset Strategies Inc.’s 10th Largest Position

United Asset Strategies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 52,134 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 1,558 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 2.1% of United Asset Strategies Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. United Asset Strategies Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $29,366,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in META. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.1% in 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,112,735,000 after purchasing an additional 310,947 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 1,258 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total value of $754,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $910,200. The trade was a 45.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $561.56, for a total value of $280,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,943 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,652,671.08. The trade was a 14.52% decrease in their position. 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 36,280 shares of company stock valued at $22,075,696 in the last quarter. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Investors are viewing Meta’s roughly $145 billion AI infrastructure commitment as a potentially valuable long-term investment. The company’s data-center buildout and open-weight AI models could strengthen advertising performance, user engagement and future products. Meta and Nvidia plant “very firm flag” in open-weight AI race
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s rollout of a standalone Facebook Creator Studio app with AI-powered audience-growth and engagement tools may support creator activity and platform monetization. Facebook officially rolls out its standalone Creator Studio app with AI tools for creators
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts continue to see substantial upside in META, with consensus price targets well above recent trading levels. The bullish view is supported by strong revenue growth and expectations that AI investments will reinforce Meta’s core advertising business. Meta remains a deeply discounted giant
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s partnership with the North America’s Building Trades Unions is intended to expand access to skilled workers for construction and maintenance of U.S. AI infrastructure, supporting execution of its ambitious capacity expansion. Meta taps skilled trades workers to power America’s AI infrastructure boom
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta removed approximately 756,000 suspected under-16 accounts in Australia—462,000 Instagram accounts and 294,000 Facebook accounts—as it responds to the country’s youth-social-media restrictions. The move demonstrates compliance but may increase moderation and enforcement costs. Meta says it has taken down 756,000 Australian teen accounts
• Negative Sentiment: Meta is defending itself in a major trial brought by 29 U.S. states alleging that Facebook and Instagram were designed to addict children. An adverse outcome could bring significant damages and require costly platform changes. Meta, 29 states head to court over youth social media litigation
• Negative Sentiment: AI spending is pressuring profitability and cash flow, while a German privacy complaint over Meta’s AI glasses adds regulatory risk to its wearable-AI strategy. German advocacy group lodges criminal complaint over Meta AI glasses
• Negative Sentiment: COO Javier Olivan’s recent sales under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, along with some institutional stake reductions, may weigh on sentiment, although the transactions do not necessarily indicate weaker fundamentals.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on META. Truist Financial cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $770.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $750.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Mizuho set a $750.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Phillip Securities raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $785.32.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $594.97 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The company has a market cap of $1.52 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.41, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a current ratio of 2.23. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $596.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $620.62.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $7.14 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were given 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.91%.

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.