Hardman Johnston Global Advisors LLC Sells 8,701 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Hardman Johnston Global Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 16.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 44,722 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 8,701 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for 1.6% of Hardman Johnston Global Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Hardman Johnston Global Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $32,843,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Goldstone Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 44.4% during the 3rd quarter. Goldstone Financial Group LLC now owns 3,752 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,756,000 after buying an additional 1,153 shares in the last quarter. Spirepoint Private Client LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% during the second quarter. Spirepoint Private Client LLC now owns 4,080 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,011,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 10.4% during the second quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 55,431 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $43,790,000 after acquiring an additional 5,224 shares in the last quarter. CW Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 27.8% in the 2nd quarter. CW Advisors LLC now owns 176,762 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $130,467,000 after acquiring an additional 38,432 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 11.0% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 210,526 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $155,387,000 after purchasing an additional 20,912 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Threads’ mobile daily users have reportedly passed X, indicating stronger engagement that could help ad monetization and user-growth narrative. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Instagram is shifting most ad inventory into Reels (over half of Instagram ads in 2025), supporting the company’s short‑form video monetization strategy. Read More.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $604.12 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $640.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $698.52. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The company has a market cap of $1.52 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a current ratio of 1.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. The company had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $6.03 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 26.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.28%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wedbush cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $920.00 to $880.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 19th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $820.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $800.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 23rd. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $821.07.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $653.00, for a total transaction of $337,601.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 11,166 shares in the company, valued at $7,291,398. The trade was a 4.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.28, for a total value of $358,602.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,587 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,454,330.36. This represents a 9.40% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 40,115 shares of company stock valued at $24,741,055 in the last ninety days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company 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.