Kraft Asset Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Kraft Asset Management LLC lowered its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 10.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 850 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 96 shares during the quarter. Kraft Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $429,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 187,180,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $90,891,055,000 after buying an additional 831,047 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,299,316 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $18,597,382,000 after acquiring an additional 244,803 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $12,296,383,000 after purchasing an additional 1,083,719 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.5% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 34,597,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $16,799,612,000 after acquiring an additional 4,379,826 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $11,285,855,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total transaction of $75,073.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 124,387 shares in the company, valued at $62,254,449.63. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total transaction of $75,073.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 124,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,254,449.63. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $533.95, for a total value of $483,224.75. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,724,113. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 384,783 shares of company stock valued at $194,001,589. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $563.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $525.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $522.00 to $555.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $574.41.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META traded down $2.55 on Tuesday, hitting $526.73. 7,918,727 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,270,597. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $276.03 and a fifty-two week high of $542.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 2.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. The business’s fifty day moving average is $501.01 and its 200 day moving average is $489.45.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The company’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.23 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.5 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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