Box Hill Private Wealth LLC Invests $1.07 Million in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Box Hill Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 1,619 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,069,000. Meta Platforms makes up 1.1% of Box Hill Private Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. RHL Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $48,000. Finally, Entrust Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $48,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total value of $4,769,642.01. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $251,641.62. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total value of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at $8,014,978.24. The trade was a 41.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last three months, insiders have sold 42,860 shares of company stock worth $26,555,260. Corporate insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $840.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Benchmark assumed coverage on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $775.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday. They issued an “overweight” rating for the company. Finally, Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $840.60.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.7%

NASDAQ META opened at $627.57 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.59 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.81, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $618.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $636.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.35. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $520.26 and a 52 week high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. The firm had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $6.43 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 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 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta launched a new Meta Business Agent for WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, targeting enterprise customers and giving investors a potential new revenue stream beyond advertising. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Meta won a partial legal victory in Europe over the EU’s treatment of Marketplace under tech rules, easing one regulatory overhang. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive overall, with at least one recent upgrade to strong-buy and multiple bullish price targets tied to Meta’s commerce and AI initiatives. Finviz reference

Meta Platforms Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.