Sunbelt Securities Inc. Has $8.41 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 4.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,218 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 648 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for about 0.7% of Sunbelt Securities Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Sunbelt Securities Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,406,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. 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 purchasing an additional 14 shares during the period. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the fourth 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 during the period. Seelaus Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $960,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Meredith Wealth Planning increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Maiden Cove Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $282,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $3,334,383.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 16,463 shares in the company, valued at $10,855,043.68. The trade was a 23.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $677.71, for a total value of $13,554,200.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 308,686 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $209,199,589.06. This represents a 6.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 77,157 shares of company stock worth $49,411,000 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.5%

NASDAQ:META traded down $9.51 on Friday, hitting $627.06. 8,442,469 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,494,704. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $442.65 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $574.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $609.16. The company has a market cap of $1.58 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $4.71 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on META shares. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Benchmark lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $624.00 to $676.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $701.05.

Meta Platforms 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.