Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. Purchases Shares of 4,176 Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Atlas Capital Advisors opened a new position in Meta Platforms, buying 4,176 shares worth about $2.76 million in the fourth quarter.
• Wall Street remains broadly positive on Meta, with analysts keeping a Moderate Buy consensus and an average price target of $840.60, though some firms recently trimmed targets.
• Meta reported strong Q1 results, including EPS of $10.44 versus $6.67 expected and revenue of $56.31 billion, while also announcing a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share.

Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 4,176 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $2,757,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. RHL Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $48,000. Finally, Entrust Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $48,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 10th. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating and set a $760.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Meta Platforms from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set an "overweight" rating on the stock. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $885.00 to $820.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $840.60.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META opened at $566.98 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $621.15 and a 200-day moving average of $635.89. The company has a market capitalization of $1.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $520.26 and a 1-year high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.35.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The business had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $6.43 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is expanding its AI infrastructure globally, including a new AI-enabled data center partnership in India with Reliance Industries, reinforcing confidence in its long-term artificial intelligence strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: The company launched Instagram Plus globally, an optional subscription product that could help diversify revenue beyond advertising.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentary from Morgan Stanley, Zacks, and others continued to describe Meta as a high-quality growth and compounder stock, with recent earnings still viewed as strong.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total value of $1,268,023.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This represents a 65.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total transaction of $4,769,642.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 414 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $251,641.62. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,305 shares of company stock valued at $25,567,928. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc NASDAQ: META, formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta's core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.

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