Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Bought by Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 930,966 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,919 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 2.6% of Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $524,404,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. RHL Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Advantage Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Axiom Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth about $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,708,013.06. The trade was a 26.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing 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. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,848 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $558.00, for a total value of $4,379,184.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 828 shares in the company, valued at approximately $462,024. This represents a 90.46% 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. Insiders have sold a total of 38,502 shares of company stock worth $22,603,485 in the last three months. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut 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. Erste Group Bank raised Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Barclays dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $780.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $1,015.00 to $883.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $785.32.

Trending Headlines about Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta launched Pocket in the U.S., an AI-powered app that lets users create and share interactive games through text prompts. The product could increase engagement and expand Meta’s consumer AI ecosystem. Meta brings Pocket to U.S. users
• Positive Sentiment: Meta introduced a Mac app for Meta AI with system-wide dictation and screen-aware assistance. The company is also pricing its new Muse Code coding agent below Anthropic and OpenAI offerings, potentially helping it attract developers and build AI adoption. Meta AI launches Mac app
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s core advertising business remains strong, with quarterly revenue rising 28% year over year to $60.8 billion. AI-related improvements to recommendations and ad delivery are supporting engagement, clicks and conversion efficiency. Meta drawdown analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta is contesting the Federal Trade Commission’s effort to revive monopoly charges. The company argues that Facebook and Instagram users increasingly see recommended content rather than posts from friends, a defense that could influence the case’s regulatory implications. Meta fights FTC monopoly charges
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth, CFO Susan Li and insider Curtis Mahoney sold shares worth roughly $10.3 million in aggregate under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans. The transactions are limited as discretionary signals but may still affect investor sentiment. Meta insider transaction filing
• Negative Sentiment: Child-safety and social-media addiction litigation is intensifying. Testimony alleging that some safety tools were “designed to fail” raises the possibility of major damages, mandated product changes, restrictions on engagement features and pressure on advertising monetization. Meta social media lawsuit trial
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that heavier AI capital spending will depress second-half free cash flow and increase financial pressure. Those concerns follow Meta’s quarterly EPS miss, despite its revenue beat, and have contributed to the stock’s year-to-date weakness. Meta stock investment analysis

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $549.90 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $593.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $615.41. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $520.26 and a one year high of $790.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23. The firm has a market cap of $1.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.91%.

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.