742 Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Purchased by IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd

IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd acquired a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 742 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $374,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 961,588 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $484,852,000 after buying an additional 72,046 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 18.0% during the 2nd quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. now owns 22,678 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $11,439,000 after buying an additional 3,455 shares in the last quarter. Axim Planning & Wealth purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at about $203,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.4% during the 2nd quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 14,225 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,173,000 after buying an additional 1,341 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kranot Hishtalmut Le Morim Ve Gananot Havera Menahelet LTD grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 27.4% during the 2nd quarter. Kranot Hishtalmut Le Morim Ve Gananot Havera Menahelet LTD now owns 57,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $28,907,000 after buying an additional 12,320 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock traded down $1.09 during trading on Friday, reaching $517.13. The stock had a trading volume of 4,305,990 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,962,566. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $279.40 and a 52 week high of $544.23. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $504.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $492.38. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $1.31 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.85, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion for 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%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief technology officer now owns 11,990 shares in the company, valued at $6,315,852.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $2,663,825.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 11,990 shares in the company, valued at $6,315,852.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $536.92, for a total value of $221,747.96. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 14,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,744,534.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 388,078 shares of company stock worth $200,792,168 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Bank of America lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $563.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $570.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-two have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $574.41.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

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.