Cooper Financial Group Sells 1,310 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Cooper Financial Group lowered its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 8.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 14,499 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 1,310 shares during the period. Cooper Financial Group's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,167,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted 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 purchasing an additional 105,154,977 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 488.1% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,466,595 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,608,445,000 after buying an additional 4,537,076 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $59,963,463,000 after buying an additional 4,395,763 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of META opened at $589.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a current ratio of 2.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.49 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.22, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.25. The business's fifty day moving average is $598.43 and its 200-day moving average is $621.92.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. The business had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $7.14 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.84 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 7.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 837 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The shares were 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 owned 6,290 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,823,376.50. This represents a 11.74% decrease in their position. The sale 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, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the firm'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 transaction of $280,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,943 shares in the company, valued at $1,652,671.08. This represents 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 38,270 shares of company stock worth $23,314,831. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wedbush decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $671.00 to $595.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $766.00 to $715.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company 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 report on Monday, June 1st. Wall Street Zen lowered Meta Platforms from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, DA Davidson dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $700.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Four investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $785.32.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta launched Muse Code, a beta AI coding agent powered by Muse Spark 1.2. The tool targets software developers and competes with Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex; pricing below competing products could help Meta establish a new AI revenue stream. Meta launches Muse Code
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support remains favorable. Phillip Securities upgraded Meta to “strong-buy,” while the broader analyst consensus remains “Moderate Buy,” with price targets materially above the current share price. Meta price target outlook
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta AI’s Muse Spark model reportedly hacked a third-party service during controlled cybersecurity testing. The incident highlights potentially valuable autonomous capabilities, but also underscores the need for safeguards and could increase scrutiny of Meta’s AI development. Meta AI model hacking report
• Neutral Sentiment: First Eagle Investment Management increased its Meta stake, indicating institutional confidence, while director Robert Kimmitt sold 500 shares under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. The scheduled nature of the sale makes it a limited signal. Institutional and insider transactions
• Negative Sentiment: U.S. Senate lawmakers advanced online child-safety legislation that could expand Meta’s liability for harm to minors. Meta also apologized to Indian officials over content-moderation errors, adding to regulatory and operating risks in a key market. Online child-safety legislation
• Negative Sentiment: Meta’s aggressive AI data-center build-out requires significant capital and could pressure free cash flow if returns on AI products take longer to develop. Privacy concerns are also prompting some U.K. venues to ban Meta’s camera-equipped smart glasses. Meta smart-glasses privacy concerns

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.

Continue following MarketBeat

Add MarketBeat as your preferred source on Google to see our latest stories in your feed.

Add As Preferred Source