New York State Teachers Retirement System Trims Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• New York State Teachers Retirement System cut its Meta Platforms stake by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, though Meta still remains its 8th-largest holding and about 2.3% of its portfolio.
• Meta insiders have been selling shares, including CTO Andrew Bosworth and COO Javier Olivan; overall, insiders sold 167,676 shares worth about $107.3 million over the last three months.
• Analysts remain broadly positive on META despite recent volatility, with an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $840.31, while the stock also faces fresh scrutiny from lawsuits and board-investigation headlines.

New York State Teachers Retirement System lessened its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,767,535 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 47,224 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 2.3% of New York State Teachers Retirement System's holdings, making the stock its 8th largest holding. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.07% of Meta Platforms worth $1,166,732,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $48,000. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 36.8% during the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 78 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Dorato Capital Management purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $62,000. Finally, PMV Capital Advisers LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 26.3% during the 4th quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 96 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total transaction of $5,106,100.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,793,352.84. This trade represents a 74.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total transaction of $1,748,612.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 10,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,645,103.65. This trade represents a 20.83% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 167,676 shares of company stock worth $107,299,848 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on META. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $730.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Erste Group Bank cut Meta Platforms from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. Evercore boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $830.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $840.31.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Negative Sentiment: Santa Clara County sued Meta, alleging the company earned money from scam advertisements on Facebook and Instagram and violated California false advertising and unfair business practices laws. California county sues Meta over scam ads
• Negative Sentiment: Another report highlighted the same lawsuit, framing it as a claim that Meta earned billions from scam Facebook ads, reinforcing investor worries about reputational damage and possible legal costs. Meta accused of earning billions from scam Facebook ads in new California lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: A plaintiffs’ law firm also announced an investigation into Meta’s board over possible breaches of fiduciary duty tied to privacy oversight and AI training practices, which could keep governance concerns in focus. Berger Montague PC Investigates Meta Platforms, Inc.'s Board of Directors for Breach of Fiduciary Duty (META)
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst commentary remained constructive overall, with coverage noting that Wall Street still sees upside in Meta despite recent post-earnings volatility, which may help limit downside. Meta Platforms’ Wild Post-Earnings Swings: Where Analyst Price Targets Stand Now

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.8%

META opened at $598.86 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $520.26 and a 52 week high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.77, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50 day moving average of $625.62 and a 200-day moving average of $643.49.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. The company had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $6.43 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.63%.

Meta Platforms Company 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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