Petros Family Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 1,323 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $775,000.
Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Seelaus Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $960,000 after buying an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $282,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the period. Riverwater Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $335,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Stephens Consulting LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 317 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $186,000 after acquiring an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms
In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. This trade represents a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $677.71, for a total value of $13,554,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 308,686 shares of the company's stock, valued at $209,199,589.06. The trade was a 6.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 451,119 shares of company stock valued at $304,709,239 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of brokerages recently commented on META. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Two 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $692.93.
Read Our Latest Stock Report on Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms Price Performance
META stock traded down $12.09 during trading on Monday, reaching $531.48. 14,102,971 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,773,940. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week 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. The company has a market cap of $1.35 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.22, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $628.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $609.40.
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 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 firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 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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