City Center Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 461 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

City Center Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 461 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $266,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $45,000. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $47,000. Finally, Principia Wealth Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 53.6% in the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 86 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $700.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $683.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $702.48.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total transaction of $296,813.44. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,622 shares in the company, valued at $2,744,547.96. This trade represents a 9.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $671.00, for a total transaction of $348,249.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 29,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,930,042. This represents a 1.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,563 shares of company stock worth $34,793,185 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $697.71 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.75 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm's 50 day moving average is $587.67 and its 200 day moving average is $615.55. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $442.65 and a 1 year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion for 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%. The firm's revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.71 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. 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.

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