Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC Has $18.43 Million Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC increased its Meta Platforms stake by 137.3% in Q1, buying 18,638 additional shares to bring its total to 32,212 shares worth about $18.43 million.
• Meta reported strong first-quarter earnings, with EPS of $10.44 beating estimates and revenue of $56.31 billion topping expectations; revenue rose 33.1% year over year.
• The stock has drawn mixed Wall Street and insider signals: analysts still rate it a Moderate Buy on average, but some insiders sold shares and Meta faces ongoing regulatory and legal concerns, including issues tied to WhatsApp and addiction lawsuits.

Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 137.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,212 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 18,638 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.0% of Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $18,429,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $132,015,115,000 after acquiring an additional 7,269,279 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 488.1% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,466,595 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,608,445,000 after acquiring an additional 4,537,076 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position 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 valued at $59,963,463,000 after acquiring an additional 4,395,763 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $582.88 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 stock has a market cap of $1.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $520.26 and a 12-month high of $796.25. The business's 50-day moving average price is $604.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $628.52.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The firm 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 business earned $6.43 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 $0.525 dividend. 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 presently 7.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and issued a $1,015.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $725.00 price objective (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Meta Platforms from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $850.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $775.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $840.64.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total transaction of $1,748,612.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 10,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,645,103.65. This represents a 20.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total value of $4,769,642.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 414 shares of the company's stock, valued at $251,641.62. The trade was a 94.99% 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 39,013 shares of company stock worth $24,115,999 in the last 90 days. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Meta is building a cloud business to sell excess AI compute have fueled a sharp rally, as investors see a fresh way to turn heavy AI investment into revenue. Zuckerberg says AI agent development going slower than expected
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street has reacted favorably to the cloud-compute plan, with analysts and media coverage suggesting the strategy could become a multi-billion-dollar business and improve META’s monetization profile. Meta's push into cloud computing means Wall Street has to prepare for lower margins
• Positive Sentiment: Unusual options activity showed strong investor demand for upside exposure, suggesting traders are positioning for further gains if Meta confirms the cloud strategy. Jim Cramer Says Meta Is Entering AI's 'Most Lucrative Game'
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta also rolled out a new AI-powered gaming app called Pocket, which highlights continued product experimentation but is not yet a major earnings driver. Meta quietly launches vibe-coded gaming app Pocket
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta announced it is joining a video distribution patent pool, which could reduce legal friction around video content but is unlikely to move the stock on its own. Access Advance Welcomes Meta Platforms, Inc. and Alibaba Group to the Video Distribution Patent Pool
• Negative Sentiment: Mark Zuckerberg said AI agent development has been progressing more slowly than expected, a reminder that Meta’s broader AI ambitions may take longer to pay off. Zuckerberg says AI agent development going slower than expected
• Negative Sentiment: India asked Meta to delay WhatsApp usernames over fraud concerns, adding regulatory risk around a feature tied to WhatsApp monetization and privacy efforts. India asks Meta to hold WhatsApp username rollout over fraud fears
• Negative Sentiment: Meta also lost a bid to dismiss a states’ lawsuit over Facebook and Instagram addiction claims, which keeps legal overhang in focus. Meta loses bid to dismiss states' lawsuit over Facebook and Instagram addiction claims

About Meta Platforms

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.