Value Partners Investments Inc. Takes $366,000 Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Value Partners Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 634 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $366,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Valley Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $344,000 after buying an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,743,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $282,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $335,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ABLE Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC now owns 2,136 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,251,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $3,334,383.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 16,463 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,855,043.68. This represents a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 124,831 shares of company stock valued at $83,868,872. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. DA Davidson cut 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 note on Monday, April 14th. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Loop Capital upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $695.00 to $888.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $719.52.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $733.63 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $638.51 and a 200-day moving average of $626.48. The firm has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.26. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $740.91. 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 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 company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The business's revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Meta Platforms Profile

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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