Wambolt & Associates LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Wambolt & Associates LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,779 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the quarter. Wambolt & Associates LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,403,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of META. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,695,722,000 after acquiring an additional 4,440,229 shares during the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management lifted 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 acquiring an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,960,215,000 after acquiring an additional 3,104,550 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 24.7% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 13,867,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,733,731,000 after acquiring an additional 2,748,620 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morningstar Investment Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $406,316,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $625.00 to $647.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $570.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. TD Securities lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $577.26.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $4,714,502.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 74,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,285,234.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,054 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.05, for a total value of $1,029,156.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 253,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $126,765,650. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $4,714,502.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,285,234.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 357,574 shares of company stock worth $185,587,773. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.2 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $524.62 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 2.83. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $505.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $495.51. The company has a market cap of $1.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.13, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $279.40 and a fifty-two week high of $544.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.23 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.36 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

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.