Cairn Investment Group Inc. Has $4.46 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Cairn Investment Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 7,733 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 161 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 2.5% of Cairn Investment Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. Cairn Investment Group Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,457,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. Albion Financial Group UT grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 1,223.5% in the first quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 23,982 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,822,000 after purchasing an additional 22,170 shares in the last quarter. Monument Capital Management grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 248.4% in the first quarter. Monument Capital Management now owns 7,275 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,193,000 after purchasing an additional 5,187 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the first quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 481,654 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $277,606,000 after buying an additional 10,086 shares in the last quarter. Shilanski & Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.9% in the first quarter. Shilanski & Associates Inc. now owns 3,999 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,305,000 after buying an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BankPlus Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.4% in the first quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 437 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $252,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total transaction of $1,691,609.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $737.00, for a total value of $382,503.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 27,626 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,360,362. This represents a 1.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 154,285 shares of company stock worth $105,518,153 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.5%

NASDAQ META opened at $716.91 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.80 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.96, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $442.65 and a 12 month high of $747.90. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $655.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $629.14. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.71 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.19%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. DA Davidson lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $812.00 target price (up from $683.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $719.29.

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.