First Merchants Corp Increases Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

First Merchants Corp increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 2.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,237 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 412 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,935,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Holistic Planning LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the first quarter. Holistic Planning LLC now owns 1,220 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $703,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. PDS Planning Inc increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.5% in the first quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 11,092 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $6,393,000 after purchasing an additional 1,142 shares during the period. Atala Financial Inc increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.3% in the first quarter. Atala Financial Inc now owns 2,462 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,421,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. GenTrust LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the first quarter. GenTrust LLC now owns 934 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $538,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the period. Finally, Virtus Wealth Solutions LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 19.5% in the first quarter. Virtus Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 12,779 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $7,366,000 after purchasing an additional 2,083 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $812.00 target price (up from $683.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $808.00 price objective (up previously from $650.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Friday. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $665.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Roth Capital boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $719.52.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,462 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total transaction of $1,025,052.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 139,538 shares of the company's stock, valued at $97,834,277.94. This trade represents a 1.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 124,223 shares of company stock valued at $83,526,550. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $733.63 on Monday. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $638.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $626.45. 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 stock has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.61, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.26. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $442.65 and a fifty-two week high of $742.32.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The company 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 firm's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.71 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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