Bill Few Associates Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Bill Few Associates Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 43.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 305 shares during the period. Bill Few Associates Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $507,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Clear Investment Research LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 411.1% in the fourth quarter. Clear Investment Research LLC now owns 92 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 527.3% in the 1st quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 95.6% during the 1st quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 88 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth about $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $513.09, for a total value of $8,569,629.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 98,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,618,380.86. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, Director Peggy Alford sold 1,052 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $479.00, for a total value of $503,908.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,954,472. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $513.09, for a total value of $8,569,629.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 98,654 shares in the company, valued at $50,618,380.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 315,770 shares of company stock valued at $157,719,910 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $1.50 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $527.04. 8,997,515 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,379,042. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $274.38 and a fifty-two week high of $542.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 2.83. The company’s fifty day moving average is $498.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $485.68. The stock has a market cap of $1.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.23 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.38%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Raymond James lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 1st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, TD Securities boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $572.51.

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.