Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Position Boosted by J. Stern & Co. LLP

J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 111,306 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,487 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 6.7% of J. Stern & Co. LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. J. Stern & Co. LLP’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $56,123,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vantage Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Vantage Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,323 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $468,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 45.7% during the 4th quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,302 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $815,000 after buying an additional 722 shares during the last quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 66.4% during the 4th quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,993 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,413,000 after buying an additional 1,594 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rollins Financial grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Rollins Financial now owns 30,657 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,851,000 after buying an additional 2,133 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on META. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $625.00 to $647.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $660.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $620.00 price target for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $578.92.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.2 %

META opened at $563.33 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $279.40 and a fifty-two week high of $573.98. The company has a market capitalization of $1.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.21. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average price is $510.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $498.05.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $560.00, for a total transaction of $231,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 12,772 shares in the company, valued at $7,152,320. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $560.00, for a total value of $231,280.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 12,772 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,152,320. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $514.96, for a total transaction of $8,600,861.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 213,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $109,690,084.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 349,472 shares of company stock worth $182,544,600 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Company 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.