Martin Worley Group Purchases New Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Martin Worley Group bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 1,157 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $678,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Disciplined Investors L.L.C. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $293,000. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC now owns 11,646 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $6,819,000 after purchasing an additional 483 shares in the last quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC now owns 2,386 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,397,000 after purchasing an additional 673 shares during the last quarter. Cinctive Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,377,000. Finally, Bryce Point Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $507,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.42, for a total value of $8,023,999.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 420,215 shares in the company, valued at $259,869,360.30. The trade was a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $563.03, for a total transaction of $342,322.24. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 6,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,507,676.90. The trade was a 8.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 549,113 shares of company stock valued at $364,668,246 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on META. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $718.55.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock traded down $26.89 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $504.73. 38,506,424 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,475,943. The company's 50 day moving average price is $651.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $609.95. The company has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.10, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. 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 quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business earned $5.33 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect 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 was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

Meta Platforms 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.