William Blair Investment Management LLC Has $80.19 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

William Blair Investment Management LLC lessened its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 22.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 159,034 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 44,897 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $80,188,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of META. Vantage Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Vantage Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,323 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $468,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Concentrum Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,616,000 after acquiring an additional 3,888,308 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 45.7% in the 4th quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,302 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $815,000 after acquiring an additional 722 shares in the last quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 66.4% in the 4th quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,993 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,413,000 after purchasing an additional 1,594 shares during the period. Finally, Rollins Financial increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Rollins Financial now owns 30,657 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,851,000 after purchasing an additional 2,133 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $2,663,825.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 11,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,315,852.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $2,663,825.32. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 11,990 shares in the company, valued at $6,315,852.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $507.63, for a total transaction of $459,405.15. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,197,043.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 357,574 shares of company stock valued at $185,587,773 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of several recent research reports. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $480.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $577.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.7 %

META stock opened at $533.28 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $279.40 and a fifty-two week high of $544.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.63, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.21. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $505.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $495.81.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.23 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.49%.

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.