Oak Thistle LLC Has $1.19 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Key Points

• Oak Thistle LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. by 25.2% during the first quarter, resulting in a total position worth $1.19 million.
• Several analysts have raised their target prices for Meta, with KeyCorp increasing its price objective from $655.00 to $800.00, indicating a strong market outlook.
• Meta Platforms recently paid a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share, representing an annual yield of 0.29%.

Oak Thistle LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 25.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,063 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,189,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Valley Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $344,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the period. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $1,743,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the period. Riverwater Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $335,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. ABLE Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC now owns 2,136 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,251,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,435 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $840,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $808.00 target price (up previously from $650.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Friday, June 27th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and issued a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Benchmark raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $752.33.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $712.68 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $450.80 and a twelve month high of $747.90. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $692.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $641.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $4.71 EPS. The business's revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast 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 paid 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 (DPR) is 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.10, for a total value of $371,655.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,069 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,668,010.90. The trade was a 1.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total transaction of $1,691,609.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 153,473 shares of company stock worth $105,805,440 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.