First Community Trust NA Has $3.99 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

First Community Trust NA boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,916 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 3.4% of First Community Trust NA’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. First Community Trust NA’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,991,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Meta Platforms by 5.1% in the 2nd quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 433 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $218,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Cooper Financial Group boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.9% during the second quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 4,939 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,490,000 after purchasing an additional 603 shares during the period. Terra Nova Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 31.8% in the second quarter. Terra Nova Asset Management LLC now owns 4,200 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,118,000 after purchasing an additional 1,014 shares during the last quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 659.4% in the 2nd quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 108,826 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $54,872,000 after buying an additional 94,496 shares during the period. Finally, LVW Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 7,786 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,926,000 after buying an additional 622 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,911 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 transaction of $2,317,255.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 11,388 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,373,427.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $451.15, for a total transaction of $406,486.15. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,034,122.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,911 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 $2,317,255.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 11,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,373,427.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 335,860 shares of company stock worth $167,199,478 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Needham & Company LLC reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, August 1st. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $525.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-three have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $572.51.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of META traded up $13.33 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $529.28. The stock had a trading volume of 8,146,839 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,387,576. The company has a market cap of $1.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.06, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $497.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $484.74. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $274.38 and a 1-year high of $542.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.68.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.23 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.