Liberty Capital Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Liberty Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 12.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,087 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 232 shares during the period. Liberty Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,203,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in META. Fjell Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $1,836,000. Opulen Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $325,000. Daner Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $334,000. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $20,230,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $112,406,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on META shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $752.00 to $664.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $676.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday. Moffett Nathanson increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $704.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $682.87 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.72 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.26. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $604.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $619.26.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.50, for a total transaction of $369,360.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,446 shares in the company, valued at $4,523,445. The trade was a 7.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.25, for a total value of $552,830.25. Following the sale, the insider now owns 32,103 shares in the company, valued at $19,269,825.75. This represents a 2.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 86,201 shares of company stock worth $56,377,837. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.