Arvest Investments Inc. Buys New Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Arvest Investments Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,952 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,441,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at $28,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at $33,000. JCIC Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 102.6% in the first quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. JMP Securities raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Raymond James Financial raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $822.41.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $775.95, for a total value of $46,557,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 237,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $184,059,219.75. The trade was a 20.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $753.43, for a total value of $11,939,605.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 283,280 shares of company stock valued at $214,119,908 over the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.6%

META opened at $755.59 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97. The company has a market capitalization of $1.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $741.83 and a 200-day moving average of $661.83.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 22nd. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 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.