Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 13.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,671 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 1,227 shares during the period. Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,248,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. 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 the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $574.16, for a total value of $237,128.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,147,531.12. The trade was a 3.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 496,174 shares of company stock worth $301,408,499 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on META. Raymond James reissued a "strong-buy" rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. JMP Securities upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Scotiabank reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $650.05.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ META traded up $1.47 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $612.77. 17,239,131 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,812,479. The stock has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $370.95 and a one year high of $638.40. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $596.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $557.04.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.33%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.42%.

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.