Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC Lowers Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC decreased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 13.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,142 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 327 shares during the period. Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,581,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $44,119,937,000 after purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.3% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,669,795 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,184,163,000 after purchasing an additional 400,927 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 8.8% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 15,575,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,977,361,000 after purchasing an additional 1,255,546 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.5% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 12,543,468 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,229,553,000 after purchasing an additional 536,160 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,041,171 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,787,329,000 after purchasing an additional 247,850 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on META. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $870.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Zacks Research downgraded Meta Platforms from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $810.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Raymond James Financial boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” 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 issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $830.68.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $713.34, for a total transaction of $368,796.78. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 8,992 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,414,353.28. The trade was a 5.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $707.85, for a total value of $367,374.15. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 28,794 shares in the company, valued at $20,381,832.90. The trade was a 1.77% 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 $164,933,323 over the last ninety days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $716.91 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $746.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $683.72. 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. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.96, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued 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. 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 analysts’ expectations of $44.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.16 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter 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 year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

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.