Family Firm Inc. Makes New Investment in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 287 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $145,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 6,838 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,420,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Blodgett Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $434,000. Kovack Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 11,073 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,919,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares during the last quarter. Eos Management L.P. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 301.8% during the fourth quarter. Eos Management L.P. now owns 16,222 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,742,000 after purchasing an additional 12,185 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Markel Group Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 264,681 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $93,686,000 after buying an additional 5,800 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $545.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $570.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Guggenheim upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-three have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $574.41.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.7 %

META stock traded down $3.93 on Friday, reaching $528.00. 11,304,691 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,221,447. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $502.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $490.42. The company has a market cap of $1.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $276.03 and a one year high of $544.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.68.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The company’s revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.23 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $4,714,502.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,285,234.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $4,714,502.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 74,579 shares in the company, valued at $39,285,234.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.38, for a total transaction of $478,183.90. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 40,532 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,416,298.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 418,680 shares of company stock worth $211,992,147 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.