Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. Purchases 635 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 8.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,451 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 635 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 1.4% of Brown Lisle Cummings Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,871,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Valley Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $344,000 after buying an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $335,000 after buying an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ABLE Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $710.24, for a total transaction of $9,796,340.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 57,533 shares of the company's stock, valued at $40,862,237.92. The trade was a 19.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total value 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 approximately $10,855,043.68. This represents a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 124,831 shares of company stock valued at $83,868,872. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, June 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $676.00 to $807.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an "underperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $808.00 target price (up previously from $650.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Friday. Finally, Loop Capital increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $695.00 to $888.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $719.52.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.0%

Meta Platforms stock traded up $7.54 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $733.63. The stock had a trading volume of 18,758,104 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,539,418. 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 stock has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.26. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $442.65 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $638.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $626.48.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during 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%. Meta Platforms's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.71 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business 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 of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

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.