Smith & Howard Wealth Management LLC Sells 100 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Smith & Howard Wealth Management LLC decreased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 14.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 601 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Smith & Howard Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $444,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth about $28,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth about $33,000. Maseco LLP purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth about $54,000. Finally, JCIC Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 102.6% in the first quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on META. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $880.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $905.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $870.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, DA Davidson increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $826.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $743.75 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $751.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $671.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $1.39. The business had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.16 EPS. Meta Platforms has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 22nd. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.60%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,694 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $775.00, for a total value of $9,062,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,799 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,394,225. The trade was a 86.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 18,332 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $764.71, for a total value of $14,018,663.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 84,141 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,343,464.11. This trade represents a 17.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 229,819 shares of company stock worth $176,241,968 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. It operates in two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The Family of Apps segment offers Facebook, which enables people to share, discuss, discover, and connect with interests; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and private messages, as well as feed, stories, reels, video, live, and shops; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, communities, and businesses across platforms and devices through text, audio, and video calls; and WhatsApp, a messaging application that is used by people and businesses to communicate and transact privately.