Blair William & Co. IL Boosts Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Blair William & Co. IL increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. by 4.6% during Q2, now holding 576,598 shares valued at approximately $425.6 million, making it their 13th largest position.
• Several large investors significantly boosted their stakes in Meta, with Kingstone Capital Partners increasing its position by approximately 608,429.2%, now owning over $44 billion in shares.
• Meta Platforms recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share, yielding 0.3% with a payout ratio of 7.60%.

Blair William & Co. IL increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 576,598 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 25,440 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.2% of Blair William & Co. IL's investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Blair William & Co. IL's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $425,581,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position 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 in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 400,927 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted 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 buying an additional 1,255,546 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted 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 buying an additional 536,160 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted 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 buying an additional 247,850 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Truist Financial set a $880.00 price objective on Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Hsbc Global Res raised Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $811.00 to $837.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four 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 company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $830.68.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $707.85, for a total transaction of $367,374.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 28,794 shares in the company, valued at $20,381,832.90. The trade was a 1.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $713.34, for a total value of $368,796.78. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 8,992 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,414,353.28. The trade was a 5.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 214,182 shares of company stock worth $164,933,323 in the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META opened at $716.91 on Friday. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $746.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $683.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $479.80 and a 12-month high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.80 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.96, a PEG ratio of 1.49 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 company had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.16 EPS. Meta Platforms's revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. Meta Platforms has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. 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 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.

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