Second Half Financial Partners LLC Has $314,000 Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Second Half Financial Partners LLC cut its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 19.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 545 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 135 shares during the period. Second Half Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $314,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,517,178,000 after buying an additional 23,417,803 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $2,243,603,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,727,613,000 after buying an additional 2,787,832 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 712.2% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,537,631 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,462,589,000 after buying an additional 2,225,186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $1,162,918,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $890.00 price objective (up from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $860.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $811.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $773.44 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $699.22 and a 200-day moving average of $644.61. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $450.80 and a 1 year high of $784.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66. The company has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $1.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 40.31% and a net margin of 39.99%. The company had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.16 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total transaction of $1,691,609.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $723.08, for a total transaction of $336,232.20. Following the sale, the director directly owned 9,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,755,013.36. This represents a 4.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 152,980 shares of company stock worth $105,708,832. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.