NBZ Investment Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 517 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

NBZ Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 517 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $303,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $946,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares during the period. United Bank raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 22.2% in the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,188,000 after acquiring an additional 1,011 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $625,000. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 38.6% in the third quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 20,773 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $11,891,000 after purchasing an additional 5,786 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock traded up $9.65 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $586.01. 5,465,500 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,231,970. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. 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 $1.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.50, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $654.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $610.25.

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 period last year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. This trade represents a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 583,505 shares of company stock valued at $385,495,911 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark raised Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $820.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $718.55.

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.