Ballentine Partners LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Ballentine Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 55,527 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,152 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 0.5% of Ballentine Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $27,998,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in META. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 187,180,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $90,891,055,000 after purchasing an additional 831,047 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,299,316 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $18,597,382,000 after buying an additional 244,803 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,296,383,000 after buying an additional 1,083,719 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 34,597,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $16,799,612,000 after buying an additional 4,379,826 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $11,285,855,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on META. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $480.00 to $610.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $615.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, TD Securities upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $577.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $511.83 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 2.83. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $279.40 and a 1 year high of $544.23. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $505.12 and a 200-day moving average of $494.86. The company has a market cap of $1.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 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 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.23 EPS. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $503.34, for a total value of $8,406,784.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 275,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $138,567,991.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $503.34, for a total value of $8,406,784.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 275,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $138,567,991.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 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 transaction of $4,714,502.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,285,234.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 373,371 shares of company stock valued at $193,535,153 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.