Pennsylvania Capital Management Inc. ADV Decreases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Pennsylvania Capital Management Inc. ADV reduced its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 6.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,654 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 111 shares during the quarter. Pennsylvania Capital Management Inc. ADV’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $953,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Suvretta Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Suvretta Capital Management LLC now owns 170,338 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $99,735,000 after acquiring an additional 1,850 shares in the last quarter. Skye Global Management LP raised its position in Meta Platforms by 130.9% during the fourth quarter. Skye Global Management LP now owns 76,200 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $44,616,000 after acquiring an additional 43,200 shares during the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $459,000. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 255.9% in the fourth quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 1,709,694 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,001,044,000 after buying an additional 1,229,350 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,908,382,000 after buying an additional 110,040 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on META. TD Securities dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $683.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $627.00 to $525.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $803.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $712.69.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.0%

Meta Platforms stock opened at $712.20 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.78, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $625.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $624.38. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $442.65 and a 52 week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.71 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 8,312 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $702.13, for a total value of $5,836,104.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 88,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,048,632.36. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total transaction of $296,813.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,622 shares in the company, valued at $2,744,547.96. This represents a 9.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 110,002 shares of company stock valued at $73,353,340. Company insiders own 13.61% 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.