Howe & Rusling Inc. Purchases 1,072 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Howe & Rusling Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.6% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 41,602 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,072 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.6% of Howe & Rusling Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $23,802,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $132,015,115,000 after acquiring an additional 7,269,279 shares in the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.1% during 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 878,396 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 310,947 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the business’s 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 directly owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,014,978.24. The trade was a 41.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available 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 the company’s 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 owned 1,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This trade represents a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 44,748 shares of company stock worth $27,565,292. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on META. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $775.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Arete Research set a $735.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Susquehanna upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “positive” rating to a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $835.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $840.64.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 4.7%

META stock opened at $631.48 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $598.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $626.80. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.60 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.35.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The business had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.56 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $6.43 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.63%.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta launched Muse Spark 1.1, an upgraded multimodal AI model with agentic coding features and public developer access, signaling a more serious push into enterprise AI and paid API usage. Meta enters the crowded AI coding battle with Muse Spark 1.1
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Meta plans to start manufacturing its own AI chip in September point to a potential reduction in GPU costs and better control over future AI infrastructure spending. Meta to put AI chip into production in September as it looks to double computing capacity, memo shows
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s expanding AI infrastructure buildout, including a new large data center in Canada and a reported 250MW energy supply agreement, supports the view that the company is preparing for much larger AI demand. Meta plans billions for first AI data center in Canada, largest outside the US
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst commentary and bullish articles argue Meta’s heavy AI spending could eventually translate into higher margins, compute monetization, and stronger ad products, helping justify the stock’s valuation. Alphabet vs. Meta: Which AI Stock Is the Better Buy Right Now?
• Neutral Sentiment: Some coverage notes Meta’s valuation, aggressive capex, and competition from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, which keeps investor expectations balanced even as AI momentum improves. META’s $9B AI Infrastructure Bet, Cloud Ambitions: Is the Stock a Buy?
• Negative Sentiment: There are still concerns that Meta is spending heavily on AI before proving enough near-term returns, and one report said the stock had dipped earlier as capex worries resurfaced. Meta Stock Dips as AI Capex Concerns Arise

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.