Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Bought by Commonwealth Financial Services LLC

Commonwealth Financial Services LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 16.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,912 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the period. Commonwealth Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,678,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in META. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, JCIC Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 102.6% in the 1st quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $768.67, for a total value of $12,181,113.49. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 15,000 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $767.80, for a total value of $11,517,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 222,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $170,608,999. This represents a 6.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 274,416 shares of company stock worth $199,599,359 in the last three months. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on META. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $812.00 to $897.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $795.00 to $875.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. HSBC raised Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $610.00 to $900.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Benchmark upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $890.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $822.41.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $769.30 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $784.75. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $714.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $651.30.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The business had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.16 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 7.60%.

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.