Victrix Investment Advisors increased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 13.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,284 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 644 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for 1.6% of Victrix Investment Advisors' holdings, making the stock its 25th largest position. Victrix Investment Advisors' holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,972,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, JCIC Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 102.6% during the 1st quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several brokerages have commented on META. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $719.52.
Read Our Latest Analysis on Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.0%
Shares of META stock opened at $733.63 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $442.65 and a fifty-two week high of $742.39. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $638.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $626.45.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $4.71 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.19%.
Insider Activity
In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 406 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.69, for a total transaction of $199,626.14. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 4,608 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,265,707.52. This represents a 8.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $3,334,383.52. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 16,463 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,855,043.68. This trade represents a 23.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 124,223 shares of company stock worth $83,526,550 over the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
About Meta Platforms
(
Free Report)
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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