Flagship Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 457 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Flagship Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 457 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $268,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $27,470,870,000 after acquiring an additional 698,884 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $8,266,531,000 after purchasing an additional 263,063 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $8,344,552,000 after purchasing an additional 424,201 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $4,101,602,000 after purchasing an additional 186,728 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,908,382,000 after purchasing an additional 110,040 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. 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. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and set a $770.00 price objective (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC restated an "underperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target 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 research 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded up $23.30 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $619.55. 15,714,384 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,812,127. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.57 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $655.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $606.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,311 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.21, for a total transaction of $1,387,085.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $602.47, for a total value of $545,235.35. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,820 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,375,535.40. This trade represents a 2.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 622,431 shares of company stock worth $408,968,491 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

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.