Violich Capital Management Inc. Increases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Violich Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,560 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Violich Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,366,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $44,119,937,000 after purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,990,544,000. Amundi boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 23.5% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 7,733,061 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,111,050,000 after purchasing an additional 1,470,070 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 15,575,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,977,361,000 after purchasing an additional 1,255,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $571,086,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,694 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $775.00, for a total value of $9,062,850.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,799 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,394,225. This trade represents a 86.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 18,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $764.71, for a total value of $14,018,663.72. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 84,141 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,343,464.11. This trade represents a 17.89% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 213,146 shares of company stock worth $164,208,279. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on META shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Scotiabank increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. DA Davidson increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $880.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $829.66.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META opened at $751.44 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market cap of $1.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.21, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $741.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $694.67. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $479.80 and a 12-month high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The company had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.16 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.60%.

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.