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

Silver Oak Securities Incorporated increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 18.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,835 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 1,383 shares during the quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,095,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of META. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $19,949,512,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $13,517,178,000 after purchasing an additional 23,417,803 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,243,603,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $13,727,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787,832 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 712.2% in the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,537,631 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,462,589,000 after purchasing an additional 2,225,186 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on META. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $627.00 to $525.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Bank of America lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $665.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned 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 price target of $727.95.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $6.75 during trading on Thursday, reaching $726.03. The company had a trading volume of 4,452,170 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,467,859. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $747.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.83 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $669.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $632.53. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

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 for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.71 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other news, 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 value of $1,691,609.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 value of $370,952.67. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 7,336 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,263,653.36. This represents a 6.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 153,273 shares of company stock valued at $105,091,830 over the last quarter. Company 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.