Bolthouse Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 848 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $497,000.
A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of META. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,928,185,000 after purchasing an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,219 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,842,000 after purchasing an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the third quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,633,000 after buying an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 9.5% during the third quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 17,048 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $9,704,000 after buying an additional 1,480 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $679.02.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on META
Insider Activity
In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total value of $24,195,307.97. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.87, for a total transaction of $453,012.27. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 27,498 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $13,525,441.26. This trade represents a 3.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 308,068 shares of company stock valued at $214,968,924 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.
Meta Platforms Price Performance
Shares of META opened at $547.27 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $587.00 and a 200-day moving average of $604.44. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.39 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $427.11 and a twelve month high of $740.91.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.38%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.
Meta Platforms Profile
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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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