Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Cuts Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. cut its Meta Platforms stake by 20.9% in the fourth quarter, leaving it with 47,511 shares worth about $31.4 million.
• Meta continues to draw strong institutional interest overall, with 79.91% of shares owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors, even as some funds trimmed positions and others increased theirs.
• Analysts remain generally positive on Meta despite some target-price cuts: the stock still carries a Moderate Buy consensus with an average price target of $840.60, and the company recently beat earnings estimates and announced a quarterly dividend.

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. reduced its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 20.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 47,511 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 12,591 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 0.9% of Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.'s portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $31,362,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. ROI Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. ROI Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,957 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,292,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. Integrity Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 48.3% in the fourth quarter. Integrity Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,301 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $859,000 after acquiring an additional 424 shares during the last quarter. Tudor Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Tudor Financial Inc. now owns 857 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $566,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 92.6% during the fourth quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 48,230 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $31,836,000 after buying an additional 23,191 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tillman Hartley LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $274,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is expanding its AI infrastructure globally, including a new AI-enabled data center partnership in India with Reliance Industries, reinforcing confidence in its long-term artificial intelligence strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: The company launched Instagram Plus globally, an optional subscription product that could help diversify revenue beyond advertising.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentary from Morgan Stanley, Zacks, and others continued to describe Meta as a high-quality growth and compounder stock, with recent earnings still viewed as strong.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on META shares. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $850.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $800.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $725.00 target price (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $765.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Meta Platforms from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $840.60.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,014,978.24. This trade represents a 41.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total value of $1,268,023.68. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares in the company, valued at $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 have sold 41,305 shares of company stock worth $25,567,928 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.53% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.3%

NASDAQ META opened at $566.98 on Friday. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $621.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $635.89. 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 company has a market capitalization of $1.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.23.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 (DPR) is 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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