Fred Alger Management LLC Purchases 7,539 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Fred Alger Management LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,938,574 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 7,539 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 4.8% of Fred Alger Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Fred Alger Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $977,468,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vantage Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Vantage Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,323 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $468,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Concentrum Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,616,000 after purchasing an additional 3,888,308 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 45.7% in the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,302 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $815,000 after buying an additional 722 shares during the period. 9258 Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 66.4% during the fourth quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,993 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,413,000 after buying an additional 1,594 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rollins Financial grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Rollins Financial now owns 30,657 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,851,000 after buying an additional 2,133 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $2,663,825.32. Following 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $569.93, for a total transaction of $5,699,300.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 328,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $187,314,333.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 359,060 shares of company stock valued at $188,031,963 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.9 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $568.31 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $512.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $498.54. The company has a quick ratio of 2.83, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market cap of $1.44 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $279.40 and a twelve month high of $576.88.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.23 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.36 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.49%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Loop Capital upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $578.92.

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.