Capital Investment Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 9.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,213 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 2,271 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $15,685,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Suvretta Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.1% during 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 during the period. Skye Global Management LP raised its stake 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. Brueske Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $866,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the period. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its stake 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Pivotal Research decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $830.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $683.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $702.48.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $595.00, for a total transaction of $547,995.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,649,280. The trade was a 2.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total transaction of $296,813.44. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,622 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,744,547.96. The trade was a 9.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,563 shares of company stock valued at $34,793,185 over the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.9%

NASDAQ META opened at $697.71 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a fifty day moving average of $587.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $615.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.17, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.26. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $442.65 and a 52 week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. Meta Platforms's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is 8.19%.

Meta Platforms Company 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.

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