Avid Wealth Partners LLC Acquires Shares of 576 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Avid Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 576 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $332,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $45,000. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $47,000. Finally, Principia Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 53.6% in the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 86 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $615.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $735.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Wedbush raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $706.88.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.7%

NASDAQ:META opened at $697.23 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $610.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $621.38.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $4.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 7,802 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.96, for a total transaction of $5,476,691.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 110,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $77,550,434.92. The trade was a 6.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.00, for a total value of $363,819.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,183 shares in the company, valued at $20,457,283. The trade was a 1.75% 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. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

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.