Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is Everhart Financial Group Inc.'s 10th Largest Position

Everhart Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 32.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,000 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 4,124 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 2.0% of Everhart Financial Group Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Everhart Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,954,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 575 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $337,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. TigerOak Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $347,000. Seascape Capital Management raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 5,255 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,077,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares in the last quarter. Peregrine Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $8,947,000. Finally, Puff Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,549,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Scotiabank upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock traded down $11.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $683.62. 15,609,265 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 17,022,064. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $647.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $590.57. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $414.50 and a one year high of $740.91. The company has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. 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 (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.36%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total transaction of $232,424.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,018,473.83. This represents a 2.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $565.30, for a total value of $511,596.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,790 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,362,687. This represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 810,217 shares of company stock valued at $523,808,864 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Company 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.