Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Purchases 17,710 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 550,613 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,710 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for 0.8% of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $315,023,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of META. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $132,015,115,000 after buying an additional 7,269,279 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its stake in 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. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $59,963,463,000 after buying an additional 4,395,763 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,112,735,000 after acquiring an additional 310,947 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about 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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 140 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total value of $84,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 12,846 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,707,600. The trade was a 1.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 504 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.29, for a total transaction of $317,162.16. Following the transaction, the director owned 3,943 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,481,290.47. The trade was a 11.33% decrease in their position. 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 39,013 shares of company stock worth $24,115,999 in the last quarter. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $582.88 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $604.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $628.52. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $520.26 and a one year high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 analysts’ expectations of $55.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $6.43 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.46 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 7.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $725.00 target price (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Erste Group Bank cut shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $775.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 30th. Wedbush raised shares of Meta Platforms from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $1,015.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $840.64.

Meta Platforms 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.