Private Capital Advisors Inc. Acquires 6,059 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Private Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 22.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,588 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 6,059 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 2.2% of Private Capital Advisors Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Private Capital Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $18,782,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of META. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $20,230,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,537,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its position 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 valued at $129,666,000 after acquiring an additional 7,587 shares during the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE grew its position in Meta Platforms by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 6,189 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,624,000 after acquiring an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,243,603,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Roth Capital increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $740.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $665.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $736.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META traded up $2.87 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $704.28. The company's stock had a trading volume of 12,743,944 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,336,421. The company has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $686.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $637.97. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $442.65 and a 12 month high of $747.90.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 in the previous year, the firm earned $4.71 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $723.08, for a total transaction of $375,278.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,588 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,225,251.04. The trade was a 1.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total value of $1,691,609.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 153,764 shares of company stock valued at $105,721,208. 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.