Prosperity Consulting Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 16.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,589 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,343 shares during the quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,614,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $946,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,928,185,000 after buying an additional 204,412 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.1% in the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,219 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,842,000 after buying an additional 269 shares during the period. Aldebaran Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the third quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,633,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the period. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.5% in the third quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 17,048 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $9,704,000 after purchasing an additional 1,480 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of brokerages recently issued reports on META. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $685.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $679.02.
View Our Latest Research Report on META
Insider Buying and Selling
In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $627.59, for a total value of $259,194.67. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,862 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,954,832.58. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total value of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 308,068 shares of company stock valued at $214,968,924 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.6 %
Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $547.27 on Friday. The business's 50 day moving average price is $587.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $604.44. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $427.11 and a fifty-two 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 $1.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its 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 prior year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. 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 business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 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.
Further Reading
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