New Century Financial Group LLC Buys 432 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

New Century Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 48.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,322 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 432 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $976,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Csenge Advisory Group boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 12.0% in the first quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 9,539 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,498,000 after buying an additional 1,019 shares in the last quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 785 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $452,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. JMG Financial Group Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter worth approximately $284,000. Infusive Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.7% in the 1st quarter. Infusive Asset Management Inc. now owns 23,620 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,614,000 after acquiring an additional 2,285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Spirepoint Private Client LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% in the 2nd 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $704.81, for a total transaction of $364,386.77. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,509 shares in the company, valued at $6,702,038.29. This trade represents a 5.16% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $757.47, for a total transaction of $352,223.55. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 8,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,371,837.64. This represents a 5.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 214,182 shares of company stock worth $164,946,219 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $705.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.54, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50 day moving average of $752.20 and a 200 day moving average of $678.77. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $479.80 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 (DPR) is presently 7.60%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Scotiabank increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $685.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $905.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Benchmark boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $890.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Raymond James Financial lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $830.68.

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.