Lazari Capital Management Inc. Sells 788 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Lazari Capital Management Inc. decreased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 2.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,391 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 788 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up 8.1% of Lazari Capital Management Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Lazari Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $19,822,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Valley Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $344,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,743,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $282,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $335,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ABLE Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC now owns 2,136 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,251,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total transaction of $296,813.44. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. This trade represents a 9.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $704.89, for a total value of $365,837.91. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 28,145 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,839,129.05. This trade represents a 1.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 124,831 shares of company stock worth $83,868,872 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on META. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Guggenheim raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Needham & Company LLC reissued an "underperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $665.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $719.52.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META traded up $7.54 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $733.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 18,758,104 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,544,676. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $442.65 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.61, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $633.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $625.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 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 firm had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.71 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend 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.