St. Louis Trust Co Invests $314,000 in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

St. Louis Trust Co purchased a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 545 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $314,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. Valley Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $344,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,743,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $335,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC now owns 2,136 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,251,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,435 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $840,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Loop Capital increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $695.00 to $888.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $665.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Five 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $752.33.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META traded down $2.12 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $712.68. The stock had a trading volume of 8,253,539 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,556,341. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $692.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $641.78. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $450.80 and a 52 week high of $747.90. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. Meta Platforms's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $4.71 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were given 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 0.29%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.10, for a total transaction of $371,655.90. Following the transaction, the insider owned 26,069 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $18,668,010.90. This trade represents a 1.95% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $723.08, for a total transaction of $336,232.20. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,342 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,755,013.36. The trade was a 4.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 153,473 shares of company stock valued at $105,805,440. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.