Seaview Investment Managers LLC Acquires 1,603 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Seaview Investment Managers LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 14.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 12,794 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,603 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 3.2% of Seaview Investment Managers LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Seaview Investment Managers LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,445,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of META. Marshall Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 13.9% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Investment Management LLC now owns 4,975 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,284,000 after buying an additional 609 shares during the period. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 56.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC now owns 4,181 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,760,000 after buying an additional 1,511 shares during the period. Parkside Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 60.0% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Investments LLC now owns 2,400 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,584,000 after buying an additional 900 shares during the period. GatePass Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 83.2% during the fourth quarter. GatePass Capital LLC now owns 925 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $611,000 after buying an additional 420 shares during the period. Finally, Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. now owns 9,438 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,230,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total value of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at $8,014,978.24. This trade represents a 41.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total transaction of $4,769,642.01. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $251,641.62. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 42,860 shares of company stock valued at $26,555,260 over the last quarter. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Key Meta Platforms News

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta launched a new Meta Business Agent for WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, targeting enterprise customers and giving investors a potential new revenue stream beyond advertising. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Meta won a partial legal victory in Europe over the EU’s treatment of Marketplace under tech rules, easing one regulatory overhang. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive overall, with at least one recent upgrade to strong-buy and multiple bullish price targets tied to Meta’s commerce and AI initiatives. Finviz reference

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META opened at $627.57 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.59 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $520.26 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company has a 50 day moving average of $618.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $636.87.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. The company had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $6.43 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on META shares. Benchmark started coverage on Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Friday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and set a $725.00 target price (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 30th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $760.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $840.60.

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.