Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Sold by Piar LLC

Key Points

• Piar LLC reduced its Meta Platforms stake by 6.7% in Q1, selling 955 shares and ending the quarter with 13,250 shares valued at about $7.58 million. Meta remains Piar’s second-largest holding, making up roughly 5.9% of the portfolio.
• Wall Street sentiment remains bullish on META, with analysts keeping a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $835.64. Recent calls included higher targets from Raymond James and Wells Fargo, alongside several buy/overweight ratings.
• Meta posted strong quarterly results, beating earnings expectations with EPS of $10.44 versus $6.67 expected and revenue of $56.31 billion, up 33.1% year over year. The company also continued returning cash to shareholders with a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share.

Piar LLC lessened its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 6.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,250 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 955 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 5.9% of Piar LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Piar LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $7,581,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. RHL Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Bayban lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 100.0% during the 1st quarter. Bayban now owns 70 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $42,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Raymond James Financial raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $835.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Piper Sandler started coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set an "overweight" rating for the company. Arete Research set a $735.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Citizens Jmp reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $800.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $835.64.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: A new free verification badge system for Facebook users, which may improve trust and platform quality. Fast Company article
• Positive Sentiment: A dedicated Marketplace seller app with tools for merchants, aimed at making Facebook commerce more useful and organized. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street commentary remained constructive, with articles highlighting Meta as a strong momentum stock and a potentially attractive AI-era value name.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment stayed favorable, including a report that Wells Fargo raised its price target on Meta to $835.00.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META opened at $595.19 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The business's 50 day moving average price is $604.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $625.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.35.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The company had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $6.43 EPS. Meta Platforms's revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.49 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 7.63%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total value of $2,012,047.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,498 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,708,013.06. The trade was a 26.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total value of $1,268,023.68. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This trade represents a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 37,948 shares of company stock worth $23,184,319 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc NASDAQ: META, formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta's core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.

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