44 Wealth Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

44 Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 56.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,588 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 934 shares during the period. 44 Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,492,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in META. Opulen Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $325,000. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $20,230,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,537,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,397 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,989,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 221,459 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $129,666,000 after purchasing an additional 7,587 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price 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. DA Davidson lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Moffett Nathanson boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $627.00 to $525.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $812.00 price target (up previously from $683.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $724.98.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $737.00, for a total value of $382,503.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 27,626 shares in the company, valued at $20,360,362. This represents a 1.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 30th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $5,818,837.41. This represents a 6.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 152,756 shares of company stock worth $104,720,878. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $720.67 on Wednesday. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $665.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $631.83. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.11, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $442.65 and a 1 year high of $747.90.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The firm 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 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $4.71 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

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.

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