Global Endowment Management LP Trims Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Global Endowment Management LP reduced its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. by 36.9%, holding 8,338 shares after selling 4,868 shares in Q1.
• Meta Platforms' stock traded down to $767.37, while holding a market capitalization of $1.93 trillion and a PE ratio of 27.78.
• The company reported $47.52 billion in revenue for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations and marking a 21.6% increase compared to the previous year.

Global Endowment Management LP reduced its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 36.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,338 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 4,868 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 0.6% of Global Endowment Management LP's portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Global Endowment Management LP's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,806,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. United Capital Management of KS Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth $599,000. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 19.3% during the first quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 21,407 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $12,339,000 after buying an additional 3,461 shares during the last quarter. LWM Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the first quarter. LWM Advisory Services LLC now owns 984 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $570,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Ethic Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 8.1% during the first quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 144,756 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $84,827,000 after buying an additional 10,890 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 9.6% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,938 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $10,339,000 after buying an additional 1,578 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock traded down $17.86 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $767.37. The stock had a trading volume of 16,482,270 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,961,045. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $725.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $655.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.93 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.78, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 7.60%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $770.00, for a total value of $398,090.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 4,751 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,658,270. The trade was a 9.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 515 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $776.38, for a total transaction of $399,835.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 25,035 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,436,673.30. The trade was a 2.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 268,251 shares of company stock valued at $199,981,827. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of several research reports. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $905.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $880.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $810.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $822.41.

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.