Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. grew its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 40.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,816 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 522 shares during the period. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,063,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Draper Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 69.6% in the fourth quarter. Draper Asset Management LLC now owns 13,821 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $8,339,000 after acquiring an additional 5,672 shares during the last quarter. Callan Family Office LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1,616.3% during the fourth quarter. Callan Family Office LLC now owns 29,039 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $17,003,000 after buying an additional 27,347 shares during the last quarter. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC now owns 2,636 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,543,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Chatham Capital Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Chatham Capital Group Inc. now owns 5,970 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,495,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, E Fund Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 24.3% during the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 38,713 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $22,667,000 after buying an additional 7,567 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and set a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Pivotal Research boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho boosted their price target 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. JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and set a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Raymond James reissued a "strong-buy" rating and set a $800.00 price target (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $719.26.
Get Our Latest Analysis on Meta Platforms
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company's stock, valued at $38,154,349.31. This represents a 14.17 % 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 link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $622.24, for a total transaction of $22,351,483.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 725,081 shares of company stock valued at $472,702,625. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Meta Platforms Stock Performance
Shares of META opened at $605.71 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $657.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $601.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.32, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. 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 (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 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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