Whittier Trust Co. Has $170.85 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Whittier Trust Co. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 7.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 231,481 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 16,816 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for about 2.1% of Whittier Trust Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $170,853,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of META. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $20,230,000 after buying an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,537,000 after buying an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. 1776 Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 137.2% during the first quarter. 1776 Wealth LLC now owns 1,167 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $673,000 after buying an additional 675 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,013 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,889,000 after buying an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aljian Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.3% during the first quarter. Aljian Capital Management LLC now owns 3,252 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,874,000 after buying an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on META. HSBC raised shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $610.00 to $900.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $905.00 to $875.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $920.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $915.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $827.60.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $775.95, for a total value of $46,557,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 237,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $184,059,219.75. This represents a 20.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $769.38, for a total transaction of $12,192,364.86. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 198,335 shares of company stock valued at $153,047,009 over the last three months. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $666.47 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $740.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $695.92. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year high of $796.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.74 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.69%. The company’s revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $6.03 earnings per share. Meta Platforms has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.