Howard Bailey Securities LLC Increases Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Howard Bailey Securities LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 37.2% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 826 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 224 shares during the period. Howard Bailey Securities LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $476,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $45,000. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. Finally, Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 53.6% in the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 86 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.00, for a total transaction of $363,819.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 29,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,457,283. This represents a 1.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total value of $296,813.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. This represents a 9.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 84,672 shares of company stock valued at $55,455,647 over the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $702.12 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.26. The business’s 50 day moving average is $607.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $620.85. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $442.65 and a 12-month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The company 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%. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $4.71 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $665.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $683.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $706.88.

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.