Putney Financial Group LLC Makes New $216,000 Investment in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 369 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Suvretta Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Suvretta Capital Management LLC now owns 170,338 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $99,735,000 after buying an additional 1,850 shares during the last quarter. Skye Global Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 130.9% during the 4th quarter. Skye Global Management LP now owns 76,200 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $44,616,000 after buying an additional 43,200 shares during the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $866,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 255.9% during the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 1,709,694 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,001,044,000 after buying an additional 1,229,350 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the subject of several research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Loop Capital increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $695.00 to $888.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $700.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $701.05.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $686.28, for a total transaction of $417,258.24. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 9,270 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,361,815.60. The trade was a 6.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $635.50, for a total value of $329,824.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,740 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,535,270. The trade was a 1.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 77,157 shares of company stock valued at $49,411,000. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META opened at $627.06 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.58 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $442.65 and a one year high of $740.91. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $574.80 and its 200-day moving average is $609.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.71 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

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.