Precedent Wealth Partners LLC Buys 87 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Precedent Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.6% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,095 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 87 shares during the quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $552,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. now owns 1,496 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $754,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Atlas Brown Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. now owns 5,753 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,901,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. WESPAC Advisors SoCal LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 18.2% during the 2nd quarter. WESPAC Advisors SoCal LLC now owns 3,377 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,703,000 after purchasing an additional 519 shares during the period. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the second quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC now owns 3,889 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,961,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the period. Finally, Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 364.1% in the 2nd quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 6,827 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,442,000 after acquiring an additional 5,356 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $533.95, for a total value of $483,224.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,940 shares in the company, valued at $19,724,113. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $533.95, for a total value of $483,224.75. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,724,113. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $533.24, for a total transaction of $8,906,174.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,377,575.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 418,680 shares of company stock worth $211,992,147. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on META shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $625.00 to $647.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $525.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $574.41.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $528.00 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $502.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $490.42. The company 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, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $276.03 and a fifty-two week 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.23 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.38%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Meta Platforms 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.