Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Purchased by Advisor OS LLC

Advisor OS LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 6.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 7,819 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 478 shares during the quarter. Advisor OS LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,507,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,517,178,000 after acquiring an additional 23,417,803 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,243,603,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,727,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787,832 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 712.2% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,537,631 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,462,589,000 after purchasing an additional 2,225,186 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,162,918,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on META. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $807.00 to $828.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Scotiabank increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Benchmark boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $754.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total transaction of $1,691,609.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $723.08, for a total value of $336,232.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,755,013.36. The trade was a 4.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 151,944 shares of company stock worth $104,965,570. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.7%

NASDAQ:META opened at $717.63 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $694.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $642.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $450.80 and a 12-month high of $747.90.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

About Meta Platforms

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.