Red Crane Wealth Management LLC Buys 708 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Key Points

• Red Crane Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. by 40.1%, now holding 2,475 shares valued at approximately $1.4 million, making it the firm's 25th largest position.
• Wall Street analysts have positively revised their price targets for Meta, with TD Cowen setting a new target of $875 and a consensus price of $822.41, reflecting strong potential in the stock's performance.
• Meta reported a strong quarterly earnings result, with earnings per share of $7.14, surpassing expectations and indicating a year-over-year revenue increase of 21.6%.

Red Crane Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 40.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,475 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 708 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.4% of Red Crane Wealth Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Red Crane Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,427,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Csenge Advisory Group increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 12.0% during the 1st quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 9,539 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $5,498,000 after purchasing an additional 1,019 shares during the last quarter. Suvretta Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Suvretta Capital Management LLC now owns 170,338 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $99,735,000 after acquiring an additional 1,850 shares during the period. Skye Global Management LP boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 130.9% during the 4th quarter. Skye Global Management LP now owns 76,200 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $44,616,000 after acquiring an additional 43,200 shares during the period. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 785 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $452,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, JMG Financial Group Ltd. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter valued at about $284,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on META. DA Davidson raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $825.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Benchmark raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $890.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. TD Cowen raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $822.41.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META traded up $2.35 on Thursday, hitting $782.43. 6,732,904 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,334,524. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $479.80 and a 52 week high of $795.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $720.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $653.97.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $1.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%. The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.16 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 7.60%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 515 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $776.38, for a total transaction of $399,835.70. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 25,035 shares in the company, valued at $19,436,673.30. This represents a 2.02% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,037 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $785.18, for a total value of $814,231.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 292,211 shares of company stock valued at $215,232,155 in the last 90 days. 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.