847 Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Acquired by West Bancorporation Inc.

Key Points

• West Bancorporation Inc. acquired 847 shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. valued at approximately $625,000 in the 2nd quarter, adding to the significant institutional interest in the stock.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Meta, with Piper Sandler and Sanford C. Bernstein setting new targets of $880.00 and $900.00, respectively, indicating positive market sentiment.
• Meta recently reported $7.14 earnings per share, surpassing analyst expectations and showing a strong year-over-year revenue increase of 21.6% to $47.52 billion for the quarter.

West Bancorporation Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 847 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $625,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Csenge Advisory Group increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 12.0% in the first quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 9,539 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,498,000 after purchasing an additional 1,019 shares during the last quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.5% in the first quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 785 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $452,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. JMG Financial Group Ltd. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at approximately $284,000. Infusive Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 10.7% in the first quarter. Infusive Asset Management Inc. now owns 23,620 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $13,614,000 after purchasing an additional 2,285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Spirepoint Private Client LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.7% in the second quarter. Spirepoint Private Client LLC now owns 4,080 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,011,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on META. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $880.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Truist Financial set a $880.00 price objective on Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $811.00 to $837.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $829.66.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $732.17 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $746.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $686.38. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25. The company has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%.The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.16 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. Meta Platforms has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,694 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $775.00, for a total value of $9,062,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,799 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,394,225. This represents a 86.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $769.38, for a total value of $12,192,364.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 213,146 shares of company stock worth $164,196,453. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.

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