Davidson Investment Advisors Purchases 30,132 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Davidson Investment Advisors raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 7,440.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,537 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 30,132 shares during the period. Davidson Investment Advisors' holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $17,600,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $45,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on META. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $627.00 to $525.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $676.00 to $807.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $615.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $729.38.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction 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 $753,393.55. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total value of $9,670,686.09. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 118,279 shares of the company's stock, valued at $82,928,955.27. This represents a 10.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 153,792 shares of company stock worth $105,466,325. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock traded down $9.73 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $717.51. The company's stock had a trading volume of 10,855,962 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,480,953. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $442.65 and a 12-month high of $747.90. The company has a market capitalization of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.98, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a current ratio of 2.66. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $674.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $634.17.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.71 EPS. Meta Platforms's revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a $0.525 dividend. 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 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.