Archer Investment Corp Sells 793 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Archer Investment Corp decreased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 9.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,352 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 793 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.1% of Archer Investment Corp's portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Archer Investment Corp's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,238,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Darden Wealth Group Inc boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Darden Wealth Group Inc now owns 1,847 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,065,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the period. JDH Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 18.9% in the 1st quarter. JDH Wealth Management LLC now owns 617 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $356,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. Creekmur Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 16.7% in the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $612,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the period. Alexander Labrunerie & CO. Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. Alexander Labrunerie & CO. Inc. now owns 1,585 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $914,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the period. Finally, Saturna Capital Corp boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 13.1% in the 1st quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 4,439 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $2,558,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total value of $14,296,645.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $753,393.55. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company's stock, valued at $82,928,955.27. This trade represents a 10.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 153,473 shares of company stock worth $105,805,440 over the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $665.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $735.00 to $795.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $752.33.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META traded down $2.12 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $712.68. 8,253,539 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,556,341. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $450.80 and a 1 year high of $747.90. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $692.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $641.78. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.28.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $4.71 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms's dividend 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.