First Affirmative Financial Network Sells 260 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

First Affirmative Financial Network reduced its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.2% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,561 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 260 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 0.9% of First Affirmative Financial Network’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. First Affirmative Financial Network’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,476,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Valley Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $344,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,743,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the period. Seelaus Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $960,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. Meredith Wealth Planning lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Maiden Cove Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total value of $296,813.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. This represents a 9.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $671.00, for a total value of $348,249.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 29,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,930,042. The trade was a 1.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,171 shares of company stock worth $35,163,457 over the last ninety days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $697.71 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $442.65 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $587.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $614.84. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $1.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.17, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.26.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $41.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.19%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on META shares. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Raymond James dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $735.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $702.48.

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.