Heritage Investors Management Corp Acquires 531 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Heritage Investors Management Corp increased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 1.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 30,326 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 531 shares during the quarter. Heritage Investors Management Corp's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $17,479,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 15.8% in the first quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 412,416 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $237,698,000 after buying an additional 56,212 shares in the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.2% in the 1st quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 31,197 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $17,981,000 after purchasing an additional 3,875 shares during the period. WNY Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.7% during the 1st quarter. WNY Asset Management LLC now owns 4,024 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $2,319,000 after purchasing an additional 516 shares in the last quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 95.7% during the 1st quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 12,367 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $7,128,000 after acquiring an additional 6,049 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.5% in the first quarter. Integrated Capital Management LLC now owns 402 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $232,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Raymond James Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $752.33.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded up $4.18 on Monday, hitting $716.86. 3,710,559 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,368,374. The stock has a market cap of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.93, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm's 50-day moving average is $692.48 and its 200 day moving average is $642.00. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $450.80 and a 52-week high of $747.90.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.71 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $4,532,440.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 70,040 shares of the company's stock, valued at $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total value of $14,296,645.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at $753,393.55. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 152,865 shares of company stock valued at $105,467,671 over the last three months. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

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.