Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Sold by Swedbank AB

Key Points

• Swedbank AB trimmed its Meta stake by 2% in the fourth quarter, selling 71,245 shares but still holding 3.41 million shares worth about $2.25 billion. Meta remains Swedbank’s 8th-largest position and about 2.2% of its portfolio.
• Meta’s fundamentals remain strong, with the company recently beating earnings expectations on both EPS and revenue and posting 33.1% year-over-year revenue growth. Analysts still rate the stock a Moderate Buy, though several have slightly lowered price targets.
• The company is navigating both AI upside and risk: analysts and a new study point to Meta’s strong AI adoption, but the stock also faces security, regulatory, and internal concerns, including hacked AI chatbot issues and pressure over scam ads and child-safety complaints.

Swedbank AB lowered its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 3,411,382 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 71,245 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 2.2% of Swedbank AB's investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Swedbank AB owned approximately 0.13% of Meta Platforms worth $2,251,819,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. First National Bank Sioux Falls raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. First National Bank Sioux Falls now owns 2,001 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,321,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. now owns 984 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $649,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. now owns 1,075 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $794,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Arcataur Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Arcataur Capital Management LLC now owns 1,736 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,146,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acorn Creek Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Acorn Creek Capital LLC now owns 2,118 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,398,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street sentiment remains constructive, with analysts including RBC reiterating an outperform view and setting a higher price target, suggesting investors still see meaningful upside in Meta’s core ad and AI businesses.
• Positive Sentiment: A new study ranked Meta among the top S&P 500 companies adopting AI, reinforcing the market’s view that AI remains a key long-term growth driver for the company.
• Positive Sentiment: Meta also announced broader teen-safety controls and new Instagram features aimed at safer, more age-appropriate feeds, which may help ease concerns around user safety and regulation.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles highlighted Meta as a long-term growth or value stock, reflecting continued investor interest but not a clear near-term catalyst.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta is dialing back its plan to collect employee mouse movements, clicks, and keystrokes for AI training after staff pushback, underscoring internal resistance to how aggressively the company is pursuing AI data collection. Exclusive: Meta scales back AI mouse clicks tool, citing employee concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Hackers reportedly tricked Meta’s AI chatbot into helping them access Instagram accounts, raising fresh concerns about product security and trust in Meta’s AI systems. They tricked Meta's chatbot to hack into Instagram accounts. It's a warning about how much we trust AI.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta continues to face regulatory and legal pressure over scam ads and child-safety issues, including coordinated European complaints and a proposed group legal action in the UK, which could add compliance costs and reputational risk.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 837 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $608.98, for a total value of $509,716.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 13,823 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,417,930.54. This represents a 5.71% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total transaction of $1,268,023.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This trade represents a 65.03% 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 sold a total of 40,890 shares of company stock worth $25,315,558 in the last 90 days. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $597.63 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $520.26 and a 12-month high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company has a 50-day moving average of $617.71 and a 200 day moving average of $636.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The company had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $55.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $6.43 EPS. Meta Platforms's revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 7.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on META. Wolfe Research reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $885.00 to $820.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 20th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $800.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $840.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $840.60.

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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