Planning Directions Inc. Cuts Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Planning Directions Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 22.4% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 302 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 87 shares during the period. Planning Directions Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $223,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in 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 purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $2,990,544,000. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 23.5% during the 1st 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 position in 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 worth $8,977,361,000 after acquiring an additional 1,255,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter worth approximately $571,086,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $621.71 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.46, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $479.80 and a one year high of $796.25. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $726.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $702.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a current ratio of 1.98.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Investors 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 (DPR) is 9.28%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,694 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $775.00, for a total value of $9,062,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,799 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,394,225. The trade was a 86.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,612 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $782.13, for a total transaction of $2,042,923.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 7,609 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,951,227.17. This represents a 25.56% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 75,798 shares of company stock valued at $58,347,026 over the last quarter. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $685.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $920.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $800.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $800.00 target price (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Benchmark downgraded Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $827.60.

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.