Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 31.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,676 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,217 shares during the quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,088,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of META. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 183,244,796 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $55,011,920,000 after buying an additional 1,733,182 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,890,950,000 after buying an additional 1,184,978 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,003,927 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,906,009,000 after buying an additional 946,871 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,143,462 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,945,799,000 after buying an additional 111,735 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,043,756. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total value of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 34,398 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.52, for a total value of $15,737,772.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,257,876 shares of company stock valued at $613,168,252. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Wedbush reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $480.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.80.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded up $10.28 during trading on Friday, hitting $451.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 16,474,126 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,392,596. The company has a market capitalization of $1.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.99, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.21. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $491.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $407.43. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $229.85 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 2.68.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.1 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms 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.