Alta Capital Management LLC Purchases 13,297 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Alta Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 419.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 16,467 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 13,297 shares during the period. Alta Capital Management LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,491,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of META. Valley Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 14 shares during the period. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position 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 worth $1,743,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Meredith Wealth Planning boosted its position 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 worth $1,097,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the period. Maiden Cove Capital LLC boosted its position 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 worth $282,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Riverwater Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% during 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 during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on META. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $676.00 to $807.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup restated a "buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Scotiabank cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $627.00 to $525.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Moffett Nathanson upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $615.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $710.00.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $614.97, for a total transaction of $373,901.76. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 6,838 shares in the company, valued at $4,205,164.86. The trade was a 8.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 1,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $753,393.55. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 111,031 shares of company stock valued at $73,954,565 over the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.9%

META stock traded down $13.42 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $682.35. The company's stock had a trading volume of 22,498,010 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,512,174. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $442.65 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.72 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $618.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $623.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.71 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio 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.