Apollon Wealth Management LLC Increases Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. by 2.3% during the second quarter, now owning a total of 85,310 shares valued at approximately $62.97 million.
• Wall Street analysts have raised their target prices for Meta, with ratings indicating a strong outlook; the consensus target price is $829.66 and includes several "buy" and "overweight" ratings.
• In recent insider trading, CFO Susan J. Li and insider Christopher K. Cox sold significant shares of Meta, resulting in a decrease of their ownership positions by 17.89% and 20.19%, respectively.

Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 2.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 85,310 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 1,941 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises 1.2% of Apollon Wealth Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 11th largest position. Apollon Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $62,966,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $811.00 to $837.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $845.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Pivotal Research raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $930.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $810.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $897.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $829.66.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.1%

META opened at $732.17 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.51, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.20. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $746.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $686.38.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 EPS 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 analysts' expectations of $44.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.16 EPS. Meta Platforms'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 expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 18,332 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $764.71, for a total transaction of $14,018,663.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 84,141 shares of the company's stock, valued at $64,343,464.11. The trade was a 17.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 60,000 shares of Meta Platforms 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 sale, the insider directly owned 237,205 shares of the company's stock, valued at $184,059,219.75. This trade represents a 20.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 213,146 shares of company stock valued at $164,196,453. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

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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