Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC Increases Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 6.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,432 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,275 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.6% of Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC's holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $12,353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $812.00 price objective (up from $683.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. 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 report on Thursday. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $729.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total value of $9,670,686.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 118,279 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $82,928,955.27. This represents a 10.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 153,792 shares of company stock valued at $105,466,325 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META traded down $9.73 during trading on Friday, hitting $717.51. The stock had a trading volume of 10,855,962 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,460,014. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $674.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $634.35. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $442.65 and a 12 month 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 firm has a market cap of $1.80 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The firm 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 in the previous year, the company posted $4.71 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 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.