Biltmore Family Office LLC Raises Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Biltmore Family Office LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 7.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,250 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 225 shares during the quarter. Biltmore Family Office LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,873,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth about $9,882,000. MSA Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the first quarter. MSA Advisors LLC now owns 24,536 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $14,142,000 after buying an additional 212 shares during the last quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.8% in the first quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 18,176 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,476,000 after buying an additional 1,625 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.3% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,669,795 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,184,163,000 after acquiring an additional 400,927 shares during the period. Finally, Berger Financial Group Inc raised its position in Meta Platforms by 7.2% during the first quarter. Berger Financial Group Inc now owns 5,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,882,000 after acquiring an additional 335 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.3%

NASDAQ META opened at $780.08 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $479.80 and a 52 week high of $795.46. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $720.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $653.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.27.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.16 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.60%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $770.00, for a total value of $398,090.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 4,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,658,270. This represents a 9.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,037 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $785.18, for a total transaction of $814,231.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 292,211 shares of company stock worth $215,232,155 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on META shares. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $822.41.

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.