Romano Brothers AND Company Acquires 204 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Romano Brothers AND Company grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 6.2% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,519 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,028,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in META. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Finally, Conquis Financial LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $670.90 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $442.65 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The company has a market capitalization of $1.69 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s fifty day moving average is $579.76 and its 200 day moving average is $612.10.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.71 EPS. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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 $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on META shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $683.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Argus set a $775.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $701.05.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.00, for a total transaction of $370,272.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,054 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,904,886. The trade was a 7.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $3,334,383.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 16,463 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,855,043.68. This represents a 23.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 55,135 shares of company stock valued at $34,481,779. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.