Pacific Capital Partners Ltd Purchases New Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Key Points

• Pacific Capital Partners Ltd has acquired 4,193 shares of Meta Platforms, valued at approximately $2.4 million, making it the 22nd largest position in their portfolio.
• Meta Platforms reported a notable earnings beat with an EPS of $7.14, surpassing estimates of $5.75, and experiencing a revenue increase of 21.6% year-over-year.
• Several analysts have raised their price targets for META, with HSBC increasing theirs significantly from $610 to $900, while the consensus price target now stands at $820.32.

Pacific Capital Partners Ltd purchased a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 4,193 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $2,417,000. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.5% of Pacific Capital Partners Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in META. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $13,517,178,000 after acquiring an additional 23,417,803 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,243,603,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 13.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 2,787,832 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 712.2% in 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 acquiring an additional 2,225,186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,162,918,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction of $14,296,645.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at $753,393.55. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $753.43, for a total transaction of $11,939,605.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 167,298 shares of company stock valued at $116,742,790 in the last three months. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. HSBC upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $610.00 to $900.00 in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Benchmark boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $890.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $820.32.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock traded down $8.30 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $768.07. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,441,751 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,569,142. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $478.65 and a 1 year high of $784.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market capitalization of $1.93 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.27. The company's fifty day moving average is $704.66 and its 200-day moving average is $647.27.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%. The business had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $5.16 EPS. Meta Platforms's revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued 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 7.60%.

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.