Z3 Capital Partners LLC Buys 1,160 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Z3 Capital Partners increased its Meta stake by 84.9% in the second quarter, purchasing 1,160 additional shares and bringing its holdings to 2,527 shares valued at approximately $1.42 million.
• Institutional investors own 79.91% of Meta’s stock, while analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $785.32, despite several firms recently lowering their targets.
• Meta’s latest quarter showed 28% year-over-year revenue growth to $60.8 billion, but earnings of $6.18 per share missed estimates; the company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share.

Z3 Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 84.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,527 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 1,160 shares during the quarter. Z3 Capital Partners LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,423,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted 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 worth $69,502,379,000 after acquiring an additional 105,154,977 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $132,015,115,000 after purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $3,608,445,000 after purchasing an additional 4,537,076 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 4,395,763 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on META. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $770.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $890.00 to $730.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $810.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $640.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Meta Platforms from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $785.32.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $559.02 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $790.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $592.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $613.84.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). The company had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. Meta Platforms's revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $7.14 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is presently 7.91%.

Trending Headlines about Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Advertising growth supports the stock. Meta’s accelerating ad business is benefiting from AI-driven recommendation tools, high user engagement and greater advertiser adoption, helping the company maintain an advantage over Reddit and Snap. META Rides on Ad Growth: Can It Stay Ahead of RDDT and SNAP?
• Positive Sentiment: AI talent and investment strengthen Meta’s long-term narrative. Former OpenAI researcher Luke Metz has joined Meta’s Superintelligence Labs, reporting to Alexandr Wang. Mark Zuckerberg has also outlined an aggressive plan to build agentic AI, potentially broadening Meta’s growth beyond online advertising. Former OpenAI researcher Luke Metz joins Meta's Superintelligence Labs under Alexandr Wang Mark Zuckerberg Published a 6,500-Word AI Manifesto
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional buying and AI monetization potential add support. Reports of hedge-fund purchases during the second quarter and Meta’s ability to monetize AI usage through advertising are reinforcing the bullish long-term thesis. Two Legendary Investors Just Bought Meta Platforms Stock
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector rotation is also helping. Meta and Alphabet edged higher while Snap gained and Reddit declined, indicating selective buying among social-media stocks rather than a uniform sector move. Social Media Trade Splits
• Negative Sentiment: AI spending and governance risks remain overhangs. Meta’s unrestricted AI buildout requires significant investment, while reports that employee-monitoring apps shared worker data with Facebook could renew privacy and regulatory concerns. Bossware Data Shared with Facebook

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,848 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $558.00, for a total value of $4,379,184.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 828 shares in the company, valued at $462,024. This represents a 90.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total transaction of $2,012,047.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,498 shares in the company, valued at $5,708,013.06. The trade was a 26.06% 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. Insiders sold 37,036 shares of company stock valued at $21,710,720 over the last quarter. 13.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.

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.

Continue following MarketBeat

Add MarketBeat as your preferred source on Google to see our latest stories in your feed.

Add As Preferred Source