B&D White Capital Company LLC Purchases Shares of 577 Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• B&D White Capital Company LLC has acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc., purchasing 577 shares valued at approximately $333,000.
• Multiple hedge funds have increased their stakes in Meta, with Csenge Advisory Group growing its position by 12.0% in the first quarter.
• Analysts are optimistic about Meta Platform's performance, with Piper Sandler and Benchmark raising their price targets to between $880.00 and $890.00 and assigning "overweight" and "buy" ratings, respectively.

B&D White Capital Company LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 577 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $333,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $13,517,178,000 after acquiring an additional 23,417,803 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth approximately $2,990,544,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $13,727,613,000 after buying an additional 2,787,832 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 712.2% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,225,186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,162,918,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on META shares. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $860.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $905.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. JMP Securities raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $812.00 to $897.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $822.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $775.95, for a total transaction of $46,557,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 237,205 shares in the company, valued at $184,059,219.75. This represents a 20.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $753.43, for a total transaction of $11,939,605.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 312,767 shares of company stock valued at $234,618,139. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.9%

NASDAQ:META traded down $6.72 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $747.38. 7,986,888 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,077,465. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $479.80 and a 12-month high of $796.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.06, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.27. 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 company has a 50 day moving average price of $732.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $657.92.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The company had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.16 earnings per share. Meta Platforms's revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. Meta Platforms has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.60%.

Meta Platforms 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.