Trust Co. of Vermont Buys 664 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Trust Co. of Vermont lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 1.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 59,502 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 664 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 2.1% of Trust Co. of Vermont's investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Trust Co. of Vermont's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $43,918,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Csenge Advisory Group increased its position 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 buying an additional 1,019 shares during the last quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position 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 buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. JMG Financial Group Ltd. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth approximately $284,000. Infusive Asset Management Inc. increased its position 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 buying an additional 2,285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Spirepoint Private Client LLC increased its position 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 buying an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $757.47, for a total transaction of $352,223.55. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 8,412 shares in the company, valued at $6,371,837.64. This represents a 5.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $748.72, for a total value of $387,088.24. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 10,026 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,506,666.72. The trade was a 4.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 213,146 shares of company stock worth $164,209,720 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on META shares. Barclays upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $810.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Mizuho set a $925.00 target price on Meta Platforms and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. JMP Securities upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $870.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Pivotal Research upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $830.61.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of META stock opened at $713.08 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a market cap of $1.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.20. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $753.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $677.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year high of $796.25.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business 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 company posted $5.16 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Meta Platforms has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid 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 presently 7.60%.

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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