Verus Financial Partners Inc. Buys 104 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Verus Financial Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 15.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 766 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $561,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted 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 valued at $44,119,937,000 after acquiring an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at $2,990,544,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 712.2% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,537,631 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,462,589,000 after acquiring an additional 2,225,186 shares during the period. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 23.5% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 7,733,061 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,111,050,000 after buying an additional 1,470,070 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.8% in 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 buying an additional 1,255,546 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $860.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $810.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Benchmark lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $890.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $740.00 to $840.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $811.00 to $837.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $830.68.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,694 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $775.00, for a total transaction of $9,062,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,799 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,394,225. The trade was a 86.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $775.95, for a total value of $46,557,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 237,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $184,059,219.75. The trade was a 20.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 214,182 shares of company stock valued at $164,946,219 over the last 90 days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $733.51 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25. 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $753.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $678.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $5.16 EPS. Meta Platforms has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

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.