Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. Buys Shares of 34,056 Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 34,056 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,480,000. Meta Platforms comprises 0.8% of Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A.’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $48,000. Entrust Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $48,000. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 36.8% during the fourth quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 78 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $597.63 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.72, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.35. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $617.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $636.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. The firm had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $6.43 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street sentiment remains constructive, with analysts including RBC reiterating an outperform view and setting a higher price target, suggesting investors still see meaningful upside in Meta’s core ad and AI businesses.
• Positive Sentiment: A new study ranked Meta among the top S&P 500 companies adopting AI, reinforcing the market’s view that AI remains a key long-term growth driver for the company.
• Positive Sentiment: Meta also announced broader teen-safety controls and new Instagram features aimed at safer, more age-appropriate feeds, which may help ease concerns around user safety and regulation.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles highlighted Meta as a long-term growth or value stock, reflecting continued investor interest but not a clear near-term catalyst.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta is dialing back its plan to collect employee mouse movements, clicks, and keystrokes for AI training after staff pushback, underscoring internal resistance to how aggressively the company is pursuing AI data collection. Exclusive: Meta scales back AI mouse clicks tool, citing employee concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Hackers reportedly tricked Meta’s AI chatbot into helping them access Instagram accounts, raising fresh concerns about product security and trust in Meta’s AI systems. They tricked Meta’s chatbot to hack into Instagram accounts. It’s a warning about how much we trust AI.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta continues to face regulatory and legal pressure over scam ads and child-safety issues, including coordinated European complaints and a proposed group legal action in the UK, which could add compliance costs and reputational risk.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of several recent research reports. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wolfe Research reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $935.00 to $945.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $840.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $805.00 to $780.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $840.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total value of $4,769,642.01. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 414 shares in the company, valued at $251,641.62. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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, COO Javier Olivan sold 837 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $608.98, for a total value of $509,716.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 13,823 shares in the company, valued at $8,417,930.54. This represents a 5.71% 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 40,890 shares of company stock worth $25,315,558 over the last ninety days. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.