Avitas Wealth Management LLC Acquires 561 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Avitas Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 20,861 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 561 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.5% of Avitas Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Avitas Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $10,519,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. S.A. Mason LLC lifted 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 lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 1,057 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $513,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Northern Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake 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 worth $314,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.1% in the second quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 433 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $218,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LongView Wealth Management raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the first quarter. LongView Wealth Management now owns 1,762 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $856,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total value of $75,073.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,254,449.63. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Sheryl Sandberg sold 105,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $476.71, for a total transaction of $50,054,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 630,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $300,466,976.03. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total value of $75,073.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,254,449.63. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 418,680 shares of company stock valued at $211,992,147. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $580.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $360.00 price target for the company. Bank of America increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $563.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $570.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-three have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $574.41.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META traded down $3.93 during trading on Friday, hitting $528.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 11,304,691 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,221,447. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $276.03 and a twelve month high of $544.23. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $502.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $490.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were paid 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 payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

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.