ELCO Management Co. LLC Buys New Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

ELCO Management Co. LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 285 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $210,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at about $33,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 237.5% during the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 42.6% in the 2nd quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 67 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maseco LLP bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $54,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $628.00, for a total value of $325,932.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 27,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,104,836. This trade represents a 1.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.97, for a total transaction of $333,391.05. Following the transaction, the director owned 7,947 shares in the company, valued at $5,697,760.59. This represents a 5.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 75,798 shares of company stock valued at $58,347,026. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on META. Bank of America dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. HSBC upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $610.00 to $900.00 in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $915.00 to $850.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $1,086.00 to $1,117.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $920.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $827.60.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $621.71 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $726.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $702.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $796.25. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. The firm had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $6.03 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. Meta Platforms has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS 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 issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.28%.

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.