Beacon Capital Management LLC Acquires 758 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Beacon Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 36.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 2,811 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 758 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 0.3% of Beacon Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Beacon Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,417,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. S.A. Mason LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $645,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.0% in the first quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 1,057 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $513,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the period. Northern Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Northern Capital Management Inc. now owns 647 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $314,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 433 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $218,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. Finally, Hanson & Doremus Investment Management increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 435 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $211,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on META shares. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Loop Capital raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-three have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $574.41.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded down $3.93 on Friday, hitting $528.00. The stock had a trading volume of 11,304,691 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,221,447. The company has a quick ratio of 2.68, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $276.03 and a one year high of $544.23. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $502.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $491.15. The stock has a market cap of $1.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.33, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.23 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.5 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.38%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $533.95, for a total value of $483,224.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,940 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,724,113. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $533.95, for a total transaction of $483,224.75. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,940 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,724,113. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $2,663,825.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 11,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,315,852.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 418,680 shares of company stock valued at $211,992,147. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.