Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC Purchases 194 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,519 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 194 shares during the period. Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,597,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 237.5% in the second quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Maseco LLP bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at about $54,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $704.81, for a total transaction of $364,386.77. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,702,038.29. This represents a 5.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 7th. The shares were 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 214,182 shares of company stock valued at $164,946,219 over the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $705.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.54, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50 day moving average of $752.20 and a 200-day moving average of $679.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on META. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. JMP Securities increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Four equities research 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 MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.