Coign Capital Advisors LLC Makes New $1.40 Million Investment in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Coign Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 2,394 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $1,402,000. Meta Platforms makes up 1.3% of Coign Capital Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,219 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,842,000 after purchasing an additional 269 shares in the last quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,633,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the period. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,480 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on META. UBS Group cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $786.00 to $650.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $685.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Raymond James reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating and issued a $800.00 price target (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $692.93.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of META traded down $12.09 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $531.48. The company had a trading volume of 14,042,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,773,770. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $628.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $609.40. 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 $1.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. 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 announced 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total transaction of $296,813.44. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. This represents a 9.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 451,119 shares of company stock worth $304,709,239. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Meta Platforms

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.