Hendershot Investments Inc. Increases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Hendershot Investments Inc. boosted its Meta Platforms stake by 49.6% in the first quarter, adding 4,189 shares to bring its total to 12,638 shares worth about $7.23 million.
• Meta is drawing attention for its aggressive AI push, including a new multimodal model, plans for in-house AI chip production, and major data center expansion to support future compute demand.
• Despite strong earnings and revenue growth, investor sentiment remains mixed because of heavy AI spending and competition, even as analysts still rate the stock a consensus Moderate Buy.

Hendershot Investments Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 49.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,638 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 4,189 shares during the quarter. Hendershot Investments Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $7,230,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. RHL Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Bayban increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 100.0% in the first quarter. Bayban now owns 70 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta launched Muse Spark 1.1, an upgraded multimodal AI model with agentic coding features and public developer access, signaling a more serious push into enterprise AI and paid API usage. Meta enters the crowded AI coding battle with Muse Spark 1.1
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Meta plans to start manufacturing its own AI chip in September point to a potential reduction in GPU costs and better control over future AI infrastructure spending. Meta to put AI chip into production in September as it looks to double computing capacity, memo shows
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s expanding AI infrastructure buildout, including a new large data center in Canada and a reported 250MW energy supply agreement, supports the view that the company is preparing for much larger AI demand. Meta plans billions for first AI data center in Canada, largest outside the US
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst commentary and bullish articles argue Meta’s heavy AI spending could eventually translate into higher margins, compute monetization, and stronger ad products, helping justify the stock’s valuation. Alphabet vs. Meta: Which AI Stock Is the Better Buy Right Now?
• Neutral Sentiment: Some coverage notes Meta’s valuation, aggressive capex, and competition from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, which keeps investor expectations balanced even as AI momentum improves. META's $9B AI Infrastructure Bet, Cloud Ambitions: Is the Stock a Buy?
• Negative Sentiment: There are still concerns that Meta is spending heavily on AI before proving enough near-term returns, and one report said the stock had dipped earlier as capex worries resurfaced. Meta Stock Dips as AI Capex Concerns Arise

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total value of $2,012,047.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,498 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,708,013.06. This trade represents a 26.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed 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 business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.75, for a total transaction of $303,875.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,443 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,092,483.25. This trade represents a 12.68% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 44,748 shares of company stock valued at $27,565,292 over the last three months. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $885.00 to $820.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 20th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $800.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wedbush upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citizens Jmp reiterated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $900.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $840.64.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $631.48 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $598.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $626.80. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.60 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. The company had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The business's revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $6.43 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

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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