Dockside LLC Buys Shares of 5,593 Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Dockside LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 5,593 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,692,000. Meta Platforms makes up 0.9% of Dockside LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $132,015,115,000 after purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $59,963,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,395,763 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,734,628,000 after purchasing an additional 878,396 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $26,112,735,000 after purchasing an additional 310,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 37,553,102 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $24,788,429,000 after purchasing an additional 823,883 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on META. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $935.00 to $945.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $750.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $885.00 to $820.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $840.60.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.3%

NASDAQ META opened at $566.98 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $520.26 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The company has a market cap of $1.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s fifty day moving average is $621.15 and its 200 day moving average is $635.89.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The company had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $6.43 EPS. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,014,978.24. This trade represents a 41.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $251,641.62. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders sold 41,305 shares of company stock valued at $25,567,928 in the last quarter. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is expanding its AI infrastructure globally, including a new AI-enabled data center partnership in India with Reliance Industries, reinforcing confidence in its long-term artificial intelligence strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: The company launched Instagram Plus globally, an optional subscription product that could help diversify revenue beyond advertising.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentary from Morgan Stanley, Zacks, and others continued to describe Meta as a high-quality growth and compounder stock, with recent earnings still viewed as strong.

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.