U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 2,813 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 8.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,432 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 2,813 shares during the period. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $19,845,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of META. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $45,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $664.00 to $783.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Loop Capital raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $695.00 to $888.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $803.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $740.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $729.38.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META traded up $3.41 during trading on Monday, hitting $720.92. 8,913,566 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,437,846. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $747.90. The company has a market cap of $1.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.12, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $674.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $634.57.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total transaction of $9,670,686.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 118,279 shares in the company, valued at approximately $82,928,955.27. This represents a 10.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction of $14,296,645.65. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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 sold a total of 153,184 shares of company stock worth $105,128,004 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

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.