Howard Bailey Securities LLC Has $476,000 Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Howard Bailey Securities LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 37.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 826 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 224 shares during the period. Howard Bailey Securities LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $476,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fjell Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,836,000. Opulen Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $325,000. Daner Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $334,000. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $20,230,000 after buying an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $112,406,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $752.00 to $664.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $695.00 to $888.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $706.88.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.8%

META stock opened at $702.12 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $740.91. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.26. The business has a 50 day moving average of $607.90 and a 200 day moving average of $620.85.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction of $14,296,645.65. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 1,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $753,393.55. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 7,802 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $701.96, for a total value of $5,476,691.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $77,550,434.92. This trade represents a 6.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 84,672 shares of company stock worth $55,455,647. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.