Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Purchased by Blue Trust Inc.

Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,575 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 118 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $7,248,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Townsend Asset Management Corp NC ADV increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Townsend Asset Management Corp NC ADV now owns 1,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $702,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Curran Financial Partners LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 11.0% during the 1st quarter. Curran Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,036 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $597,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. CLG LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the 1st quarter. CLG LLC now owns 1,060 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $611,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the period. Advisory Resource Group increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 3,323 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,915,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. Finally, ERn Financial LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. ERn Financial LLC now owns 2,651 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,528,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on META. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Pivotal Research cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $830.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson increased their price objective 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. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $740.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, TD Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $710.00.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $682.35 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.72 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $618.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $623.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.71 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $627.05, for a total value of $577,513.05. Following the sale, the insider now owns 31,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,552,673.10. The trade was a 2.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $3,334,383.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 16,463 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,855,043.68. The trade was a 23.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 111,031 shares of company stock worth $73,954,565 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms 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.