Strategic Investment Advisors MI Acquires 3,467 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Strategic Investment Advisors MI boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 31.3% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,541 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,467 shares during the quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,340,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.4% in the 1st quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 18,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,299,000 after acquiring an additional 2,670 shares during the period. Arkadios Wealth Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 60,803 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,787,000 after purchasing an additional 5,427 shares during the last quarter. South Dakota Investment Council lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 116,583 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $66,701,000 after purchasing an additional 549 shares during the last quarter. IFS Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at about $280,000. Finally, Strategic Planning Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 6.7% during the first quarter. Strategic Planning Inc. now owns 539 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $309,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms News Summary

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

A number of equities analysts have commented on META shares. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $750.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. BNP Paribas Exane began coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $785.00 price objective (down from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $770.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $789.95.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $556.71 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.97, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $601.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $622.97. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $7.14 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 7.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,014,978.24. The trade was a 41.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through 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, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total transaction of $4,769,642.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 414 shares in the company, valued at $251,641.62. This trade represents a 94.99% 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 39,325 shares of company stock valued at $23,979,087. 13.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Company 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.