Integrity Investment Advisors LLC Invests $355,000 in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Key Points

• Integrity Investment Advisors LLC acquired 615 shares of Meta Platforms, valued at approximately $355,000 during Q1, reflecting growing interest from institutional investors.
• Analysts have set new price targets for Meta Platforms, with Evercore ISI increasing its target from $725.00 to $750.00 and Oppenheimer raising it to $775.00, indicating strong market confidence.
• Meta Platforms recently declared a $0.525 quarterly dividend, which translates to an annualized yield of 0.29%, highlighting ongoing financial returns for shareholders.

Integrity Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 615 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $355,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $28,719,970,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,519 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $24,777,282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049,121 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $23,606,338,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141,355 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $19,949,512,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on META shares. Benchmark boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Barclays cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Loop Capital boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $695.00 to $888.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $812.00 price objective (up 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-eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $754.07.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $6.16 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $711.47. The company had a trading volume of 3,558,057 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,318,961. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $694.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $642.71. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $450.80 and a 12 month high of $747.90. The firm has a market cap of $1.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.78, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The firm's revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.71 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 8.19%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total transaction of $9,670,686.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 118,279 shares in the company, valued at $82,928,955.27. This trade represents a 10.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction of $14,296,645.65. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $753,393.55. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 151,944 shares of company stock worth $104,965,570 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

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.