Kranot Hishtalmut Le Morim Tichoniim Havera Menahelet LTD Increases Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Kranot Hishtalmut Le Morim Tichoniim Havera Menahelet LTD increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 13.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,518 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,811 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises 2.2% of Kranot Hishtalmut Le Morim Tichoniim Havera Menahelet LTD’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest position. Kranot Hishtalmut Le Morim Tichoniim Havera Menahelet LTD’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,939,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,000. JCIC Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 102.6% in the first quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $47,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Loop Capital lifted 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. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Moffett Nathanson lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $754.07.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $695.21 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.11, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business’s 50 day moving average is $696.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $643.47. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $450.80 and a 12-month high of $747.90.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The business had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The company’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.16 EPS. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were 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 was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $723.08, for a total transaction of $336,232.20. Following the sale, the director owned 9,342 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,755,013.36. This represents a 4.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total value of $1,691,609.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 152,461 shares of company stock worth $105,335,225 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

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.