Willner & Heller LLC Boosts Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Willner & Heller LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 863 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the quarter. Willner & Heller LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $637,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Csenge Advisory Group lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 12.0% in the 1st quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 9,539 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,498,000 after buying an additional 1,019 shares in the last quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 785 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $452,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. JMG Financial Group Ltd. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $284,000. Infusive Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in 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 valued at $13,614,000 after buying an additional 2,285 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spirepoint Private Client LLC lifted its stake in 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 valued at $3,011,000 after buying an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $704.81, for a total value of $364,386.77. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 9,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,702,038.29. This trade represents a 5.16% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 29,313 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,016,834.74. This trade represents a 1.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 214,182 shares of company stock worth $164,946,219. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 3.8%

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $705.30 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $752.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $679.24. The company has a market capitalization of $1.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.20. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The business had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The business’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $5.16 EPS. Meta Platforms has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current 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 issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.60%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Pivotal Research raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $880.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $905.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $740.00 to $840.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four investment 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.