Hills Bank & Trust Co Increases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Hills Bank & Trust Co increased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,713 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 187 shares during the period. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $10,121,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of META. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the 2nd 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 during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth about $2,990,544,000. Amundi boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 23.5% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 7,733,061 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,111,050,000 after acquiring an additional 1,470,070 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.8% during the 1st 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 acquiring an additional 1,255,546 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $571,086,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $775.00, for a total value of $402,225.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 32,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,533,150. This represents a 1.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,612 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $782.13, for a total value of $2,042,923.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 7,609 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,951,227.17. This represents a 25.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 58,397 shares of company stock valued at $44,662,165 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.7%

META stock opened at $627.08 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $721.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $705.05. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $479.80 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.58 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.70, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $6.03 earnings per share. Meta Platforms has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.28%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $915.00 to $850.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $875.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $900.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $827.60.

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.