Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. Purchases 508 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,770 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 508 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises 2.0% of Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,259,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $44,119,937,000 after purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.3% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,669,795 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,184,163,000 after purchasing an additional 400,927 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake 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 worth $8,977,361,000 after acquiring an additional 1,255,546 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake 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 worth $7,229,553,000 after acquiring an additional 536,160 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake 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 worth $5,787,329,000 after acquiring an additional 247,850 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $637.71 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.60 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.20. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $735.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $700.29.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.The company had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.34 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $6.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. Meta Platforms has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities research 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. 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 yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 9.28%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on META. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $875.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $905.00 to $875.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $915.00 to $850.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, July 28th. 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $827.60.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,612 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $782.13, for a total transaction of $2,042,923.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 7,609 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,951,227.17. The trade was a 25.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 15,000 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $767.80, for a total transaction of $11,517,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 222,205 shares in the company, valued at $170,608,999. This represents a 6.32% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 121,456 shares of company stock valued at $93,504,754 over the last quarter. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company 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.