Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Acquired by Saturna Capital Corp

Saturna Capital Corp boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 13.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,439 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 514 shares during the quarter. Saturna Capital Corp's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,558,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $20,230,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted 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 worth $5,537,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted 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 worth $129,666,000 after acquiring an additional 7,587 shares during the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE lifted 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 worth $3,624,000 after acquiring an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,243,603,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.6%

META stock traded up $4.37 during trading on Thursday, hitting $717.95. The company had a trading volume of 6,940,197 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,476,063. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.81 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.01, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $442.65 and a 52-week high of $747.90. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $689.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $640.33. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total value of $1,691,609.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $706.41, for a total transaction of $365,213.97. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 6,302 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,451,795.82. This trade represents a 7.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 152,954 shares of company stock valued at $105,433,784 over the last 90 days. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on META. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. 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 MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $752.33.

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.