Carl Stuart Investment Advisor Inc. Invests $202,000 in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Carl Stuart Investment Advisor Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 273 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000. Meta Platforms accounts for 0.1% of Carl Stuart Investment Advisor Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest position.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $44,119,937,000 after buying an additional 59,766,000 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter valued at $2,990,544,000. Amundi grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 23.5% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 7,733,061 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,111,050,000 after acquiring an additional 1,470,070 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 15,575,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,977,361,000 after acquiring an additional 1,255,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $571,086,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on META shares. Citizens Jmp increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report 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 assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $829.66.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $733.27 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The company has a fifty day moving average of $744.95 and a 200-day moving average of $686.70. The company has a market capitalization of $1.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released 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 business had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $44.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.16 earnings per share. The firm’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, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.97, for a total value of $333,391.05. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,947 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,697,760.59. This represents a 5.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $713.34, for a total value of $368,796.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 8,992 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,414,353.28. This trade represents a 5.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 213,146 shares of company stock worth $164,196,453 in the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms 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.