Partners in Financial Planning acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 617 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $361,000.
A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $946,000 after buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,928,185,000 after purchasing an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 22.2% during the third quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,188,000 after buying an additional 1,011 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth approximately $625,000. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.7% in the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,655 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,520,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued an "underperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. JMP Securities reiterated a "market outperform" rating and set a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $718.55.
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Meta Platforms Price Performance
META stock traded up $9.64 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $586.00. The stock had a trading volume of 12,803,334 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,260,171. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $654.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $610.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is 8.78%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms
In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 20,935 shares in the company, valued at $15,422,186.45. This represents a 18.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 583,505 shares of company stock valued at $385,495,911 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.
About Meta Platforms
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Free Report)
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.
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