Howe & Rusling Inc. Acquires 513 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Howe & Rusling Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 40,200 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 513 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 2.2% of Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $29,671,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth approximately $33,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC raised its stake 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 buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 42.6% during the 2nd quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 67 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Maseco LLP purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $54,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. BNP Paribas Exane started coverage on Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $800.00 price objective for the company. Zacks Research lowered Meta Platforms from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Meta Platforms from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $825.00 target price (down previously from $900.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Erste Group Bank cut Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $823.93.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of META stock opened at $647.48 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $479.80 and a 12-month high of $796.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $683.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $706.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced 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 return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.The company had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $6.03 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. Meta Platforms has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 9.28%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $598.54, for a total transaction of $309,445.18. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 14,785 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,849,413.90. This represents a 3.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,690 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $593.31, for a total transaction of $6,935,793.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,432,843.65. The trade was a 82.88% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 41,959 shares of company stock valued at $26,759,811 over the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.