Waterloo Capital L.P. Raises Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Waterloo Capital L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 24.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,394 shares during the quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,986,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in the 2nd 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 buying an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth $2,990,544,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,532,568 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 23.5% in the first 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 period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 8.8% in the first 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.35, for a total transaction of $365,610.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,476,894.45. This trade represents a 7.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,610 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Saturday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.46, for a total transaction of $1,590,690.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at $5,962,956.64. The trade was a 21.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 40,923 shares of company stock worth $26,007,416 over the last ninety days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.0%

NASDAQ META opened at $647.10 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $678.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $706.59. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.98. The company has a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.74 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $6.03 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 9.28%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $920.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $1,086.00 to $1,117.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $800.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. DA Davidson set a $825.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $823.93.

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.