Cohen Investment Advisors LLC Has $313.26 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Cohen Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 5,261.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 543,513 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 533,376 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up 8.2% of Cohen Investment Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $313,259,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. Valley Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $344,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,743,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $282,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $335,000 after buying an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ABLE Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC now owns 2,136 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,251,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on META shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $740.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $664.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, June 17th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $719.29.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock traded up $3.34 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $716.91. The stock had a trading volume of 8,601,653 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,572,054. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $658.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $629.81. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $442.65 and a one year high of $747.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.80 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.96, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The company's revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.71 EPS. Equities analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given 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 0.29%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.19%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction of $14,296,645.65. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $753,393.55. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $4,532,440.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 70,040 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 154,285 shares of company stock valued at $105,518,153 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Company 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.