Brown Shipley& Co Ltd Acquires 115 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Brown Shipley& Co Ltd raised its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,660 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 2.3% of Brown Shipley& Co Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Brown Shipley& Co Ltd’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,178,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of META. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management UK Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 38.7% in the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management UK Ltd. now owns 8,600 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,348,000 after buying an additional 2,400 shares in the last quarter. O ROURKE & COMPANY Inc acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at about $202,000. Requisite Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth about $297,000. Liberty Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 31.9% during the second quarter. Liberty Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,752 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,031,000 after purchasing an additional 665 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 941,299 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $694,763,000 after purchasing an additional 17,364 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META opened at $713.08 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.20. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $753.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $677.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week 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. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The company had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $44.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $5.16 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Meta Platforms has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.60%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on META. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Loop Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $980.00 target price (up from $888.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. DA Davidson raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $825.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Truist Financial set a $880.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $830.61.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 18,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $764.71, for a total transaction of $14,018,663.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 84,141 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,343,464.11. This trade represents a 17.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $769.38, for a total value of $12,192,364.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 213,146 shares of company stock worth $164,209,720 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

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.