West Family Investments Inc. Sells 2,510 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

West Family Investments Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 37.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,233 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 2,510 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up 0.9% of West Family Investments Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. West Family Investments Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,440,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, 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 directly owned 118,279 shares of the company's stock, valued at $82,928,955.27. This represents a 10.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total value of $4,532,440.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 70,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,181,574.40. This represents a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 153,358 shares of company stock valued at $105,521,582. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $665.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $738.37.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of META traded up $8.69 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $712.97. 9,336,770 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,316,532. The firm has a market cap of $1.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $442.65 and a 12-month high of $747.90. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $686.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $638.61.

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 for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The business's revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.71 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 payout ratio is 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.