Argent Advisors Inc. Has $746,000 Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Argent Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 96.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,294 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 635 shares during the quarter. Argent Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $746,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of META. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, JCIC Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 102.6% during the first quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $846.00 to $918.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Bank of America upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Pivotal Research decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $830.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.29.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $737.00, for a total transaction of $382,503.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 27,626 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,360,362. The trade was a 1.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $740.97, for a total value of $383,081.49. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 7,853 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,818,837.41. The trade was a 6.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 154,285 shares of company stock worth $105,518,153. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $716.91 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $655.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $629.14. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $747.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $4.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.19%.

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.