WealthPLAN Partners LLC Has $4.57 Million Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

WealthPLAN Partners LLC decreased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 15.9% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 9,402 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,774 shares during the period. WealthPLAN Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,565,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $11,285,855,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,752,900,000 after buying an additional 4,908,251 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 17.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,695,722,000 after buying an additional 4,440,229 shares during the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 111.0% in the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after buying an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,960,215,000 after buying an additional 3,104,550 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $545.00 price target (down previously from $600.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $360.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $593.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $515.64.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total transaction of $194,752.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,376 shares in the company, valued at $7,268,235.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total transaction of $194,752.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,376 shares in the company, valued at $7,268,235.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.59, for a total transaction of $291,675.15. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 37,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,853,183.67. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 294,278 shares of company stock worth $146,060,559 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock traded up $3.23 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $502.10. 5,260,688 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,124,856. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $274.38 and a 52 week high of $542.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 2.68. The firm has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.21. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $492.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $467.54.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.49%.

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.