Rafferty Asset Management LLC Buys 35,771 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 15.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 261,989 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 35,771 shares during the quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $153,397,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,087,000 after purchasing an additional 808 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares during the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $866,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 255.9% in the fourth quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 1,709,694 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,001,044,000 after purchasing an additional 1,229,350 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the subject of several recent research reports. Pivotal Research lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $830.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $740.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $696.45.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.25, for a total value of $383,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,582 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,629,887.50. This trade represents a 19.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $734.49, for a total transaction of $14,445,949.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 99,932 shares of company stock worth $69,021,252. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $659.36 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The company has a market cap of $1.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day moving average is $569.76 and its 200 day moving average is $605.94.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.71 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 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.