Silver Oak Securities Incorporated Boosts Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Silver Oak Securities Incorporated grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 18.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,835 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,383 shares during the quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,095,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after buying an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $28,719,970,000 after buying an additional 1,020,519 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $24,777,282,000 after buying an additional 1,049,121 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $23,606,338,000 after buying an additional 1,141,355 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $19,949,512,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.8%

META stock traded down $5.54 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $727.24. 9,905,148 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,503,230. The company has a market cap of $1.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.28. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $672.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $633.41. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $442.65 and a 52 week high of $747.90.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. Meta Platforms's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $4.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.19%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on META. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $846.00 to $918.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Bank of America upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $812.00 price objective (up previously from $683.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $727.95.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.51, for a total transaction of $370,952.67. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 7,336 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,263,653.36. The trade was a 6.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total transaction of $1,691,609.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 153,792 shares of company stock worth $105,466,325. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.