AlphaCore Capital LLC Grows Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

AlphaCore Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 114.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,428 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,570 shares during the period. AlphaCore Capital LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,011,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Csenge Advisory Group lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 12.0% during the 1st quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 9,539 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,498,000 after acquiring an additional 1,019 shares during the period. Suvretta Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,850 shares during the period. Skye Global Management LP lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 43,200 shares during the period. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 785 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $452,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, JMG Financial Group Ltd. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $284,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on META. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. HSBC upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $610.00 to $900.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $822.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $765.11, for a total transaction of $12,124,698.17. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $760.26, for a total transaction of $393,054.42. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 5,268 shares in the company, valued at $4,005,049.68. This represents a 8.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 289,356 shares of company stock worth $211,138,344 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.4%

NASDAQ META opened at $765.87 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $716.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $652.13. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $784.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.73, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.27.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The company had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $44.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $5.16 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.60%.

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.