Modern Wealth Management LLC Acquires 1,227 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Modern Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 22.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,634 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,227 shares during the quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,884,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $34,087,000 after purchasing an additional 808 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $82,314,000 after buying an additional 897 shares during the period. Brueske Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $866,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 worth $3,908,382,000 after acquiring an additional 110,040 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on META. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Arete Research raised shares of Meta Platforms to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a "strong-buy" rating and set a $800.00 target price (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned 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 a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $718.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $627.05, for a total transaction of $577,513.05. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 31,182 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,552,673.10. This trade represents a 2.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 20,935 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $15,422,186.45. This trade represents a 18.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 584,823 shares of company stock valued at $386,274,777. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded down $25.84 during trading on Friday, reaching $576.74. 17,561,028 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,238,405. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $655.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $609.21. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.11, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share 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 company posted $5.33 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

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.