Leelyn Smith LLC Takes Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Leelyn Smith LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 6,969 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $4,017,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $111,948,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,502,553 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $28,719,970,000 after buying an additional 1,020,519 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $24,777,282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049,121 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $23,606,338,000 after buying an additional 1,141,355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $19,949,512,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief technology officer owned 1,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at $753,393.55. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total value of $4,532,440.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 70,040 shares in the company, valued at $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 153,764 shares of company stock worth $105,721,208. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Benchmark reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Loop Capital lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $695.00 to $888.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $664.00 to $783.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $808.00 price objective (up from $650.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $736.05.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.4%

META traded up $2.87 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $704.28. 12,743,944 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,336,421. The firm's fifty day moving average is $686.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $637.97. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $747.90. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.47, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The firm 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 was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.71 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 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.