SMART Wealth LLC Decreases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

SMART Wealth LLC lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 24.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,703 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 858 shares during the quarter. SMART Wealth LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,558,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 70,040 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total value of $9,670,686.09. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 118,279 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $82,928,955.27. This represents a 10.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 152,756 shares of company stock valued at $104,720,878 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on META. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $676.00 to $807.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Pivotal Research dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $830.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Needham & Company LLC raised shares of Meta Platforms from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $727.95.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.7%

NASDAQ META traded up $12.11 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $732.78. The stock had a trading volume of 11,398,608 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,483,554. The company has a market capitalization of $1.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.58, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average price of $665.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $631.83. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $747.90.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. Meta Platforms's revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

About Meta Platforms

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.