Liberty Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 2,852.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 128,811 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 124,448 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.4% of Liberty Wealth Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Liberty Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $74,242,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of META. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $45,000. Finally, JCIC Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 102.6% in 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. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Insider Activity at Meta Platforms
In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $768.67, for a total transaction of $12,181,113.49. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $760.26, for a total value of $393,054.42. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 5,268 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,005,049.68. This trade represents a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 260,024 shares of company stock valued at $188,466,159 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
META has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $880.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, HSBC raised Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $610.00 to $900.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Four 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's stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $822.41.
Read Our Latest Analysis on META
Meta Platforms Stock Performance
Shares of META stock traded up $7.47 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $769.30. The stock had a trading volume of 7,308,601 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,494,221. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $711.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $649.96. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $479.80 and a twelve month high of $784.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.93 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $1.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%. The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.16 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.60%.
About Meta Platforms
(
Free Report)
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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