BLB&B Advisors LLC Acquires 10,692 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

BLB&B Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 242.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 15,103 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 10,692 shares during the quarter. BLB&B Advisors LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,705,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Suvretta Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Suvretta Capital Management LLC now owns 170,338 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $99,735,000 after acquiring an additional 1,850 shares in the last quarter. Skye Global Management LP boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 130.9% during the 4th quarter. Skye Global Management LP now owns 76,200 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $44,616,000 after acquiring an additional 43,200 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 255.9% during the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 1,709,694 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,001,044,000 after acquiring an additional 1,229,350 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,908,382,000 after acquiring an additional 110,040 shares during the period. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 25.1% in the 4th quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 368,499 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $215,760,000 after buying an additional 73,907 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total value of $9,670,686.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 118,279 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $82,928,955.27. This represents a 10.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $753,393.55. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 153,677 shares of company stock valued at $105,221,340. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock traded down $0.66 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $718.35. The stock had a trading volume of 9,438,384 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,524,462. The company has a 50-day moving average of $662.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $631.21. 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 company has a market cap of $1.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $442.65 and a fifty-two week high of $747.90.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on META. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Pivotal Research lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $830.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Raymond James Financial lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities reiterated a "market outperform" rating and set a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Roth Capital boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $620.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $719.29.

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.