Hodges Capital Management Inc. Increases Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Hodges Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,981 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 192 shares during the quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,876,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $11,285,855,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,752,900,000 after purchasing an additional 4,908,251 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,695,722,000 after purchasing an additional 4,440,229 shares during the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% in the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,616,000 after purchasing an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,960,215,000 after purchasing an additional 3,104,550 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of META stock opened at $504.22 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $274.38 and a 1 year high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.68. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $480.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $454.77. The company has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total value of $194,752.40. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,376 shares in the company, valued at $7,268,235.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total value of $194,752.40. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,376 shares in the company, valued at $7,268,235.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $510.88, for a total value of $8,532,717.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 230,461 shares in the company, valued at $117,737,915.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 233,512 shares of company stock worth $113,597,536 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on META. Raymond James boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $510.05.

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.