Puff Wealth Management LLC Buys New Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Puff Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,353 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $2,549,000. Meta Platforms comprises 4.2% of Puff Wealth Management LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of META. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 32.5% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $261,680,000 after acquiring an additional 112,047 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the third 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. Leo Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.5% during the third quarter. Leo Wealth LLC now owns 7,642 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $4,375,000 after acquiring an additional 1,137 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.0% during the third quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 26,964 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $15,435,000 after acquiring an additional 526 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RBA Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $4,870,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $703.21, for a total transaction of $13,830,734.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,466,769.02. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,422,186.45. This represents a 18.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 810,217 shares of company stock worth $523,808,864 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded down $11.22 during trading on Friday, reaching $683.62. The stock had a trading volume of 15,609,265 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,022,064. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $647.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $590.57. The company has a market capitalization of $1.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.58, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $414.50 and a one year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. 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 yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.36%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on META. Roth Mkm increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated an "underperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Two equities research 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 given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $719.26.

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.