Forge First Asset Management Inc. Sells 5,547 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Key Points

• Forge First Asset Management Inc. has reduced its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. by 26.3%, selling 5,547 shares, and now owns 15,523 shares valued at approximately $8.95 million.
• Analysts have recently increased their price targets for Meta Platforms, with upgrades from various brokerages, including JPMorgan Chase raising their target from $795.00 to $875.00.
• Meta Platforms reported a strong quarterly earnings result with an EPS of $7.14, exceeding expectations, alongside a significant revenue increase of 21.6% year-over-year.

Forge First Asset Management Inc. reduced its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 26.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,523 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 5,547 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises 3.8% of Forge First Asset Management Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Forge First Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,949,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth $28,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, JCIC Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 102.6% during the first quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on META. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $795.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. TD Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $812.00 to $897.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $860.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $822.41.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $771.99 on Thursday. The company's 50-day moving average is $709.65 and its 200 day moving average is $648.93. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $784.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.27.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The business had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $5.16 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued 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 0.3%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 7.60%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $753.43, for a total value of $11,939,605.21. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,183 shares in the company, valued at $753,393.55. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 199,509 shares of company stock valued at $141,509,323 over the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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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