Gradient Investments LLC Has $82.73 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Gradient Investments increased its Meta stake by 4% in the second quarter to 146,879 shares valued at approximately $82.73 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 79.91% of Meta’s stock.
• Meta reported 28% year-over-year revenue growth to $60.8 billion, exceeding estimates, but quarterly EPS of $6.18 missed expectations of $7.19. Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $785.32.
• Meta faces growing regulatory and legal risks, including a potential $942 million penalty related to youth safety claims in New Mexico and threats to its safe-harbor protections in India, while continuing to invest heavily in AI.

Gradient Investments LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 146,879 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 5,604 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.1% of Gradient Investments LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Gradient Investments LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $82,735,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of META. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $20,230,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $5,537,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares during the period. Headwater Capital Co Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 294.7% during the first quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd now owns 150,000 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $86,454,000 after acquiring an additional 112,000 shares during the period. Dymon Asia Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Finally, Capital & Planning LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $322,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about 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 Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $592.10 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.50 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 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 2.23. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $597.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $621.71. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. The business's revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $7.14 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 7.91%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $561.56, for a total transaction of $280,780.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,943 shares in the company, valued at $1,652,671.08. This represents a 14.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 837 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.85, for a total transaction of $508,770.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 6,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,823,376.50. This 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 38,270 shares of company stock valued at $23,314,831 in the last ninety days. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on META. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Scotiabank reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings cut Meta Platforms from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Erste Group Bank raised Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $805.00 to $780.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Four research 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, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $785.32.

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.

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