Essex Financial Services Inc. Sells 1,840 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Essex Financial Services Inc. trimmed its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 10.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,292 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 1,840 shares during the quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,814,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Suvretta Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Suvretta Capital Management LLC now owns 170,338 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $99,735,000 after buying an additional 1,850 shares during the period. Skye Global Management LP increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 130.9% in 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 last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $459,000. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 255.9% in the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 1,709,694 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,001,044,000 after acquiring an additional 1,229,350 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,908,382,000 after acquiring an additional 110,040 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $812.00 target price (up previously from $683.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $808.00 price target (up previously from $650.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Friday, June 27th. TD Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $740.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Benchmark decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $719.29.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $737.00, for a total value of $382,503.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 27,626 shares in the company, valued at $20,360,362. This trade represents a 1.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $740.97, for a total transaction of $383,081.49. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 7,853 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,818,837.41. The trade was a 6.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 154,285 shares of company stock valued at $105,518,153. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded up $3.34 on Friday, hitting $716.91. The company had a trading volume of 8,601,653 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,544,817. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $747.90. The stock has a market cap of $1.80 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $658.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $630.04. 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 issued 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 business 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 company posted $4.71 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS 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 paid 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 payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

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.