Traction Financial Partners LLC Makes New $224,000 Investment in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Traction Financial Partners 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 disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 382 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $224,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 61,769.3% in the 3rd quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,132,870 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $2,365,820,000 after acquiring an additional 4,126,190 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 87,269.8% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,067,659 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $625,125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,066,437 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4,658.5% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,548 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $520,662,000 after purchasing an additional 890,434 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $27,470,870,000 after acquiring an additional 698,884 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.6% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,318,046 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $2,471,822,000 after purchasing an additional 550,852 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $820.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $719.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $595.00, for a total transaction of $538,475.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,535 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,738,325. This trade represents a 2.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 812,422 shares of company stock valued at $525,534,818. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.9 %

META traded up $12.38 on Wednesday, hitting $669.88. The company had a trading volume of 9,932,976 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,715,486. The company's fifty day moving average price is $648.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $594.06. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year 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 $1.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.09, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 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 period last year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Meta Platforms Company 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.