Seamount Financial Group Inc. Trims Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Seamount Financial Group cut its Meta Platforms stake by 57.3% in the first quarter, leaving it with 644 shares worth about $368,000.
• Meta continues to attract broad institutional support, with hedge funds and other investors still owning 79.91% of the company, even as some insiders have sold shares in recent months.
• Analysts remain generally bullish: several firms reiterated or upgraded their views, and the consensus rating is Moderate Buy with a price target of about $840.64.

Seamount Financial Group Inc. cut its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 57.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 644 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 863 shares during the period. Seamount Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $368,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Keybank National Association OH boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 15.7% in the fourth quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 133,798 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $88,319,000 after buying an additional 18,169 shares during the last quarter. WMS Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $876,000. Diversified Trust Co. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co. now owns 84,059 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $55,487,000 after acquiring an additional 3,336 shares in the last quarter. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 16.2% in the third quarter. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC now owns 6,933 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,091,000 after acquiring an additional 968 shares during the period. Finally, Consolidated Investment Group LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 61.2% in the fourth quarter. Consolidated Investment Group LLC now owns 7,900 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,215,000 after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total transaction of $1,268,023.68. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares in the company, valued at $681,890.56. The trade was a 65.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total value of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,014,978.24. This trade represents a 41.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 39,513 shares of company stock valued at $24,419,874. Insiders own 13.53% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $840.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. KeyCorp reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $760.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $750.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Arete Research set a $735.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Susquehanna upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a "positive" rating to a "positive" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $840.64.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta launched Muse Image, a new AI image-generation tool inside Meta AI for consumers and businesses. The rollout could help increase engagement across Instagram, WhatsApp and other apps, while giving advertisers and creators a new reason to use Meta’s ecosystem. Meta expands generative AI tools with Muse Image rollout
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group Bank upgraded Meta from hold to buy, adding to bullish sentiment around the stock. Meta Platforms NASDAQ: META Raised to "Buy" at Erste Group Bank
• Positive Sentiment: Truist Securities also reiterated a Buy view and an $840 price target, reinforcing the case that Wall Street still sees meaningful upside in META.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $615.58 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $796.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.25. The business's 50 day moving average price is $600.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $627.42.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The company had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $6.43 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc NASDAQ: META, formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta's core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.

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