American Alpha Advisors LLC Sells 817 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

American Alpha Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 44.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,039 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 817 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 0.5% of American Alpha Advisors LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. American Alpha Advisors LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $599,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 1,049,121 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $23,606,338,000 after acquiring an additional 1,141,355 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% during 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. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 2,787,832 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,669,795 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $10,184,163,000 after acquiring an additional 400,927 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 515 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $776.38, for a total transaction of $399,835.70. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 25,035 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,436,673.30. This represents a 2.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,037 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $785.18, for a total transaction of $814,231.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 292,211 shares of company stock valued at $215,232,155 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Roth Capital boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $822.41.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META opened at $780.08 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.24, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.27. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $720.73 and a 200 day moving average of $653.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $795.46.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm 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 0.3%. 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.

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