Schear Investment Advisers LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 4.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,658 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 385 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 2.9% of Schear Investment Advisers LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Schear Investment Advisers LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,990,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several brokerages recently commented on META. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $664.00 to $783.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $812.00 target price (up from $683.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $736.05.
Get Our Latest Stock Report on META
Insider Activity at Meta Platforms
In related news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $723.08, for a total value of $336,232.20. Following the sale, the director directly owned 9,342 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,755,013.36. This represents a 4.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.50, for a total transaction of $370,947.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 6,819 shares in the company, valued at $4,892,632.50. This represents a 7.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 153,764 shares of company stock valued at $105,721,208. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.
Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.4%
Shares of NASDAQ META traded up $2.87 during trading on Friday, reaching $704.28. 12,743,944 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,339,592. The business's 50-day moving average price is $683.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $637.15. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 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 market capitalization of $1.77 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.28.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $4.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.19%.
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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