Hennessy Advisors Inc. Takes Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 177 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $131,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $20,230,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,537,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 16.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 40,691 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $23,453,000 after purchasing an additional 5,829 shares during the last quarter. Thomasville National Bank raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 39,704 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $22,884,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RFG Holdings Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. RFG Holdings Inc. now owns 2,389 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,378,000 after acquiring an additional 262 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $705.30 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $479.80 and a 52 week 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. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.77 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $752.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $679.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $44.55 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $5.16 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. Meta Platforms has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.60%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $716.98, for a total transaction of $372,112.62. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 29,313 shares in the company, valued at $21,016,834.74. This trade represents a 1.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $704.81, for a total value of $364,386.77. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 9,509 shares in the company, valued at $6,702,038.29. This trade represents a 5.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 214,182 shares of company stock worth $164,946,219 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on META. TD Cowen raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Citizens Jmp raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $845.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $830.68.

Meta Platforms Company 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.