First Interstate Bank Buys 4,435 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

First Interstate Bank boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 156.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,262 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 4,435 shares during the period. First Interstate Bank's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,186,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $45,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 118,279 shares in the company, valued at $82,928,955.27. This represents a 10.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction of $14,296,645.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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. Insiders have sold a total of 153,184 shares of company stock valued at $105,128,004 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $664.00 to $783.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $740.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $729.38.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded up $3.41 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $720.92. The company had a trading volume of 8,926,415 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,787,970. The company has a market capitalization of $1.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $442.65 and a one year high of $747.90. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $674.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $634.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

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.