Willis Johnson & Associates Inc. Sells 359 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Willis Johnson & Associates Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 24.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,082 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 359 shares during the period. Willis Johnson & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $634,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Valley Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $344,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $960,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the period. Meredith Wealth Planning lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $282,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Riverwater Partners LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $335,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $846.00 to $918.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. DA Davidson lowered their price target 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, Arete Research raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $701.05.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $703.21, for a total transaction of $13,830,734.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction of $14,296,645.65. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 1,183 shares in the company, valued at $753,393.55. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 98,837 shares of company stock worth $64,758,661 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $640.43 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $571.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $607.61. The firm has a market cap of $1.61 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The business’s revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.71 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

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.