Berkshire Bank Trims Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Berkshire Bank lessened its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,542 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 125 shares during the quarter. Berkshire Bank’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,876,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,517,178,000 after buying an additional 23,417,803 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,990,544,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 712.2% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,537,631 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,462,589,000 after purchasing an additional 2,225,186 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,162,918,000. Finally, Amundi raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 1,470,070 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $775.95, for a total transaction of $46,557,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 237,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $184,059,219.75. This represents a 20.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $753.43, for a total transaction of $11,939,605.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 257,903 shares of company stock valued at $196,364,826 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $775.72 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $744.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $664.12. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $479.80 and a one year 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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.95 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.09, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 29th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 22nd. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.60%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $810.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $880.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. JMP Securities boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Zacks Research lowered Meta Platforms from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $905.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Three 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $822.41.

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.