S.A. Mason LLC Boosts Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

S.A. Mason LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,328 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. S.A. Mason LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $645,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in META. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $11,285,855,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% during 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 holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.2% during 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 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 purchasing an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during 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.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total value of $4,223,529.35. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,190,573. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total value of $4,223,529.35. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,190,573. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sheryl Sandberg sold 105,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $476.71, for a total transaction of $50,054,550.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 630,293 shares in the company, valued at $300,466,976.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 232,607 shares of company stock valued at $113,147,760. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $609.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Wolfe Research reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $565.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $360.00 price objective for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $510.05.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.1 %

META stock traded up $5.78 during trading on Thursday, reaching $518.90. 2,504,020 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,381,246. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $479.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $452.22. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $274.38 and a 1 year high of $531.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.21.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.