EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 3,343 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 14.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,980 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,343 shares during the quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $15,436,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of META. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 worth $132,015,115,000 after purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $59,963,463,000 after buying an additional 4,395,763 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in 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 valued at $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $26,112,735,000 after buying an additional 310,947 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $766.00 to $715.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $800.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and set a $725.00 price objective (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have issued a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $789.95.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 837 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 6,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,823,376.50. The trade was a 11.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.75, for a total value of $303,875.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,443 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,092,483.25. This trade represents a 12.68% 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 39,325 shares of company stock valued at $23,979,087. 13.53% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 3.3%

NASDAQ:META opened at $556.71 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $520.26 and a one year high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.23. The firm 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. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $601.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $622.97.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.The business had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $7.14 EPS. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.63%.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

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

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.