Welch & Forbes LLC Acquires 4,699 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Welch & Forbes LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 3.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 124,030 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 4,699 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 1.1% of Welch & Forbes LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position. Welch & Forbes LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $91,545,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.Get Meta Platforms alerts:Nebius Partners With Meta—AI Growth Could Send Stock to New HighsOther institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Accuvest Global Advisors lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 8.7% in the 2nd quarter. Accuvest Global Advisors now owns 7,222 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $5,330,000 after buying an additional 579 shares during the period. Sebold Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.6% in the second quarter. Sebold Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,605 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,185,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the period. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 56,879 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $41,982,000 after acquiring an additional 1,062 shares during the period. Trail Ridge Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at $235,000. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 24,456 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $18,051,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Insider ActivityIn other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,694 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $775.00, for a total value of $9,062,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 1,799 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,394,225. This represents a 86.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $775.00, for a total value of $402,225.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 32,946 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $25,533,150. This trade represents a 1.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 59,430 shares of company stock worth $45,313,988 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock. Meta Platforms Stock PerformanceOpenAI's Restructuring Sets up What Could Be the Biggest IPO EverMETA opened at $612.61 on Thursday. The company's 50 day moving average is $719.36 and its 200 day moving average is $704.38. The company has a market cap of $1.54 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.97, a PEG ratio of 1.39 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 company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.74 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $6.03 EPS. Meta Platforms has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year. Meta Platforms Dividend AnnouncementAfter 16% Fall, Analysts Eye a Big Recovery in Meta PlatformsThe company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid 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 is 9.28%. Analyst Ratings ChangesA number of brokerages have recently weighed in on META. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $800.00 target price (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $875.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. DA Davidson set a $825.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Pivotal Research increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $827.60.Check Out Our Latest Report on METAMeta Platforms Profile (Free Report)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.Further ReadingFive stocks we like better than Meta PlatformsHow Can Retail Investors Trade the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)?Oklo’s Meltdown Is Over: A Robust Rebound Lies AheadThe Basics of Support and Resistance3 Reasons On Holding’s Sell-Off Is Over and New Highs Are ComingComparing and Trading High PE Ratio StocksAs Warren Buffett Nears His Exit, Berkshire's Amassed Record CashWant to see what other hedge funds are holding META? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report).This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.Should You Invest $1,000 in Meta Platforms Right Now?Before you consider Meta Platforms, you'll want to hear this.MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Meta Platforms wasn't on the list.While Meta Platforms currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.View The Five Stocks Here