Red Spruce Capital LLC Has $5.23 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Red Spruce Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 9,065 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 91 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 2.5% of Red Spruce Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Red Spruce Capital LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,225,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in META. Fjell Capital LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $1,836,000. Opulen Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $325,000. Daner Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $334,000. Appleton Partners Inc. MA lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Appleton Partners Inc. MA now owns 26,312 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $15,406,000 after purchasing an additional 951 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $20,230,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of several research reports. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $701.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of META stock opened at $645.05 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $442.65 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $578.25 and a 200-day moving average of $610.43. The firm has a market cap of $1.62 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.71 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $4,532,440.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 70,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total value of $14,296,645.65. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 1,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $753,393.55. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 56,664 shares of company stock worth $35,484,670. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

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.