E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. Buys 269 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 64.2% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 688 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 269 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises 0.4% of E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $397,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of META. LifeSteps Financial Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the first quarter. LifeSteps Financial Inc. now owns 1,069 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $616,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 15.8% in the first quarter. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,940 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,118,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 1,009,548 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $581,863,000 after buying an additional 56,955 shares during the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.1% during the first quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 24,180 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,937,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Narwhal Capital Management increased its position in Meta Platforms by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 44,845 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $25,847,000 after buying an additional 1,023 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META opened at $708.68 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $740.91. 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 firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $629.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $624.96. The stock has a market cap of $1.78 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.26.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.71 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.19%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on META. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Guggenheim lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Raymond James Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $627.00 to $525.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $712.69.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,462 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total value of $1,025,052.06. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 139,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,834,277.94. The trade was a 1.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $563.03, for a total value of $342,322.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 6,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,507,676.90. The trade was a 8.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 124,312 shares of company stock valued at $83,503,034 over the last 90 days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Meta Platforms

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.