SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 4.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,509 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 737 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 2.0% of SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,515,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of META. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 201,924 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $116,381,000 after buying an additional 6,924 shares in the last quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 21.4% in the first quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,937 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $2,269,000 after purchasing an additional 693 shares during the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter valued at $7,641,000. DDD Partners LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. DDD Partners LLC now owns 3,637 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $2,096,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.7% during the first quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 645 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $372,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $4,532,440.64. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 70,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total value of $14,296,645.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $753,393.55. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 152,437 shares of company stock valued at $105,068,570 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.
Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.1%
Shares of META traded down $8.16 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $704.81. The company had a trading volume of 8,873,115 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,295,031. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $747.90. The stock has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $686.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $638.61. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The company's revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.71 EPS. Research analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.19%.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $664.00 to $783.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $808.00 target price (up from $650.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $740.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $748.60.
Read Our Latest Research Report on META
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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