Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. Purchases 1,566 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. increased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 16.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,376 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 1,566 shares during the quarter. Richard C. Young & CO. LTD.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,557,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $20,230,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,537,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 221,459 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $129,666,000 after purchasing an additional 7,587 shares during the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE raised its position in Meta Platforms by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 6,189 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,624,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $2,243,603,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. TD Securities dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $740.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Truist Financial upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $665.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Roth Capital upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $740.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $752.33.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of META traded up $4.37 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $717.95. The stock had a trading volume of 6,940,197 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,476,063. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $689.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $640.33. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $747.90. The firm has a market cap of $1.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 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 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. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.71 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total value of $1,691,609.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $723.08, for a total value of $336,232.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 9,342 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,755,013.36. This represents a 4.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 152,954 shares of company stock worth $105,433,784 in the last three months. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

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.