Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC Has $2.76 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Wellington Shields Capital Management increased its Meta Platforms stake by 56.6% in the fourth quarter, ending with 4,181 shares valued at about $2.76 million.
• Several other institutional investors also raised their positions, and hedge funds and institutions now own 79.91% of Meta’s stock, showing continued broad investor interest.
• Meta reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings and revenue, and the company also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share, while analysts’ overall rating remains Moderate Buy.

Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 56.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,181 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 1,511 shares during the period. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,760,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Parkside Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 60.0% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Investments LLC now owns 2,400 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,584,000 after buying an additional 900 shares during the period. GatePass Capital LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 83.2% during the fourth quarter. GatePass Capital LLC now owns 925 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $611,000 after purchasing an additional 420 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. now owns 9,438 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $6,230,000 after purchasing an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. Wiser Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Wiser Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,674 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $2,425,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allstate Corp boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 109.4% during the fourth quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 165,384 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $109,168,000 after purchasing an additional 86,405 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,014,978.24. The trade was a 41.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total value of $4,769,642.01. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 414 shares of the company's stock, valued at $251,641.62. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 42,860 shares of company stock worth $26,555,260 over the last quarter. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $627.57 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The stock's 50-day moving average is $618.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $636.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The firm has a market cap of $1.59 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The company had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $6.43 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 7.63%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $765.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Wedbush raised Meta Platforms from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Meta Platforms from a "buy" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Erste Group Bank cut Meta Platforms from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $840.60.

Key Meta Platforms News

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta launched a new Meta Business Agent for WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, targeting enterprise customers and giving investors a potential new revenue stream beyond advertising. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Meta won a partial legal victory in Europe over the EU’s treatment of Marketplace under tech rules, easing one regulatory overhang. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive overall, with at least one recent upgrade to strong-buy and multiple bullish price targets tied to Meta’s commerce and AI initiatives. Finviz reference

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc NASDAQ: META, formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta's core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.

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