Grantvest Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,156 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $677,000.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,658,713,000 after acquiring an additional 6,240,810 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $2,243,603,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $111,948,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 87,269.8% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,067,659 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $625,125,000 after buying an additional 1,066,437 shares during the period. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4,658.5% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,548 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $520,662,000 after buying an additional 890,434 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James reiterated a "strong-buy" rating and issued a $800.00 price target (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Benchmark raised shares of Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $820.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $718.31.
Read Our Latest Research Report on Meta Platforms
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.76, for a total transaction of $535,542.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 32,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,477,780.40. This trade represents a 2.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total transaction of $243,323.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,514 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. This trade represents a 2.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 584,823 shares of company stock worth $386,274,777 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Meta Platforms Trading Down 3.6 %
Shares of NASDAQ:META traded down $21.71 on Friday, hitting $580.87. 8,123,490 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,206,373. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $655.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $607.98.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share 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 last year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed 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 represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.
About Meta Platforms
(
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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