Blankinship & Foster LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 698 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $409,000.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 460,401 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $269,591,000 after acquiring an additional 3,309 shares in the last quarter. NS Partners Ltd boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. NS Partners Ltd now owns 169,556 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $99,277,000 after acquiring an additional 3,352 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,257,937 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $736,534,000 after acquiring an additional 7,589 shares in the last quarter. Banco Santander S.A. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 30.5% during the fourth quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 207,095 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $121,256,000 after acquiring an additional 48,375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 2,063,196 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,304,336,000 after acquiring an additional 70,746 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms
In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $622.24, for a total transaction of $22,351,483.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $629.56, for a total transaction of $260,008.28. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 18,340 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,546,130.40. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 725,689 shares of company stock worth $473,072,897 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of research analysts have weighed in on META shares. Raymond James reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating and issued a $800.00 price objective (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark raised shares of Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $820.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $719.26.
Check Out Our Latest Analysis on META
Meta Platforms Price Performance
META stock opened at $619.56 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $658.13 and a 200-day moving average of $602.08. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.57 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period last year, the company 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 company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.
About Meta Platforms
(
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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