GF Fund Management CO. LTD. lowered its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 7.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 309,067 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 23,118 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for 4.2% of GF Fund Management CO. LTD.'s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest position. GF Fund Management CO. LTD.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $178,134,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Opulen Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $325,000. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $20,230,000 after buying an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $5,537,000 after buying an additional 875 shares in the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,397 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,989,000 after buying an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 221,459 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $129,666,000 after purchasing an additional 7,587 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $615.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. Pivotal Research lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $830.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $729.38.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Meta Platforms
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total value of $4,532,440.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 70,040 shares of the company's stock, valued at $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total transaction of $9,670,686.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 118,279 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $82,928,955.27. This represents a 10.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 153,792 shares of company stock valued at $105,466,325 over the last 90 days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.3%
NASDAQ META traded down $9.73 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $717.51. The company's stock had a trading volume of 10,847,750 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,488,679. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.28. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $672.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $633.41. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $442.65 and a 52-week high of $747.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66.
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 net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.71 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.19%.
Meta Platforms Company Profile
(
Free Report)
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.
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