Probity Advisors Inc. Grows Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Probity Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,686 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the period. Probity Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,245,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the 2nd 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 acquiring an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $2,990,544,000. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 23.5% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 7,733,061 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,111,050,000 after purchasing an additional 1,470,070 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $8,977,361,000 after purchasing an additional 1,255,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at $571,086,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on META. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $825.00 target price (down from $900.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $850.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $920.00 to $830.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $827.60.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $749.57, for a total value of $387,527.69. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 7,958 shares in the company, valued at $5,965,078.06. This trade represents a 6.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $753.00, for a total transaction of $390,807.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 27,756 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,900,268. This trade represents a 1.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 198,335 shares of company stock worth $153,047,009 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $666.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $740.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $695.92. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The company has a market cap of $1.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.69%. The firm had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.34 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $6.03 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. Meta Platforms has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid 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 9.28%.

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.