L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP Decreases Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP lessened its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,706 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 153 shares during the period. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,259,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of META. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its stake 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 valued at $44,119,937,000 after buying an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,990,544,000. Amundi lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 23.5% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 7,733,061 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,111,050,000 after buying an additional 1,470,070 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $8,977,361,000 after buying an additional 1,255,546 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at approximately $571,086,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $716.91 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.96, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $746.75 and a 200-day moving average of $683.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $796.25.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 18,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $764.71, for a total transaction of $14,018,663.72. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 84,141 shares in the company, valued at $64,343,464.11. This represents a 17.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $769.38, for a total transaction of $12,192,364.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 214,182 shares of company stock valued at $164,933,323 over the last ninety days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Loop Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $980.00 price objective (up previously from $888.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $740.00 to $840.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $905.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Benchmark upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $890.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Four 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $830.68.

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.