Park Avenue Securities LLC Trims Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Park Avenue Securities LLC reduced its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.1% during the second quarter, holding 83,532 shares valued at approximately $61.65 million after selling 2,696 shares.
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg and CFO Susan J. Li sold significant portions of their stock recently, with Zuckerberg selling 15,847 shares for about $11.94 million and Li selling 18,332 shares for around $14.02 million.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Meta Platforms, with Wedbush increasing it from $750 to $920 and giving the company an "outperform" rating, reflecting a positive outlook for the company's future growth.

Park Avenue Securities LLC cut its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 3.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 83,532 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 2,696 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $61,654,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Csenge Advisory Group increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 12.0% in the 1st quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 9,539 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,498,000 after acquiring an additional 1,019 shares during the period. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 785 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $452,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. JMG Financial Group Ltd. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at $284,000. Infusive Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aspire Growth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.3% during the first quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC now owns 662 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $395,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the company's 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 18,332 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer owned 84,141 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,343,464.11. This trade represents a 17.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 243,093 shares of company stock worth $185,897,260. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $920.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Hsbc Global Res raised Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $810.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $845.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Three 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. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $826.05.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of META opened at $755.40 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $748.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $667.85. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

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