Pennington Partners & CO. LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 92.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,216 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,062 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises 0.4% of Pennington Partners & CO. LLC's holdings, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Pennington Partners & CO. LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,268,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of META. RHL Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $42,000. Bayban lifted 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 valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $48,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms
In related news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.75, for a total transaction of $303,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,443 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,092,483.25. This represents a 12.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 837 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $645.85, for a total transaction of $540,576.45. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 7,127 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,602,972.95. The trade was a 10.51% 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 37,859 shares of company stock valued at $23,087,979. Insiders own 13.53% of the company's stock.
Key Meta Platforms News
Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Analysts expect Meta’s advertising business to benefit from higher impressions, stronger user engagement and AI-powered ad targeting. Consensus expectations call for approximately $60.2 billion in revenue and $7.18 in earnings per share, while traders anticipate a sizable post-earnings move. Will Higher Ad Revenues Aid Meta Platforms Stock in Q2 Earnings?
- Positive Sentiment: Guggenheim reaffirmed its buy rating and assigned an $800 price target, implying substantial upside from recent levels. Meta’s comparatively modest valuation and history of earnings beats could support the shares if results and guidance exceed expectations. Guggenheim rating report
- Positive Sentiment: Meta and BlackRock formed an approximately $14 billion venture to develop a one-gigawatt AI data-center campus in El Paso, Texas. The 80/20 structure brings outside capital into Meta’s infrastructure expansion and may reduce near-term balance-sheet pressure while securing future computing capacity. Meta, BlackRock partner on $14 billion El Paso data center
- Neutral Sentiment: Meta is expected to emphasize Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and its broader AI strategy on the earnings call. It also joined Nvidia, Alphabet and OpenAI in supporting open-weight AI models, potentially influencing future product development and regulation. Meta likely to highlight smart glasses
- Negative Sentiment: Investors are increasingly concerned that AI capital expenditures—potentially reaching $125 billion to $145 billion—will compress margins and weaken free cash flow before Meta develops a direct AI revenue stream. Alphabet’s higher spending forecast has intensified skepticism toward hyperscaler stocks. Hyperscalers face higher capex scrutiny
- Negative Sentiment: Meta faces ongoing lawsuits alleging harm to teenagers and inadequate safeguards against abuse on its platforms, creating potential financial liabilities and reputational damage. COO Javier Olivan also sold shares under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, although insider selling is not necessarily a bearish signal. Meta disregarded its own research on teen harm
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several equities research analysts have recently commented on META shares. Citigroup reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Mizuho cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $835.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Roth Capital reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $750.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Citizens Jmp lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $800.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $835.64.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on META
Meta Platforms Stock Performance
META stock opened at $593.41 on Wednesday. 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 has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50 day moving average of $603.98 and a 200-day moving average of $624.67. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $520.26 and a 12-month high of $796.25.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The business had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $6.43 earnings per share. Meta Platforms's quarterly revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.51 earnings per share for the current year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.63%.
Meta Platforms Company Profile
(
Free Report)
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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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.
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