GraniteShares Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 9.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,850 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 578 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 2.1% of GraniteShares Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. GraniteShares Advisors LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,372,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Valley Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $344,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 14 shares during the period. Seelaus Asset Management LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $960,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,097,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Maiden Cove Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Insider Activity
In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $701.00, for a total transaction of $363,819.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,457,283. This represents a 1.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total value of $14,296,645.65. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 1,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $753,393.55. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 86,201 shares of company stock valued at $56,377,837. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.
Meta Platforms Price Performance
META traded down $10.49 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $682.87. The stock had a trading volume of 9,259,272 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,501,078. The company has a market cap of $1.72 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.26. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $442.65 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The business has a fifty day moving average of $604.07 and a 200 day moving average of $619.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released 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. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.71 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. TD Securities lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $704.26.
Read Our Latest Research Report on Meta Platforms
About Meta Platforms
(
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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