Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Acquired by Valeo Financial Advisors LLC

Valeo Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 81,424 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 608 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.2% of Valeo Financial Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $47,675,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Cordant Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $61,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a "strong-buy" rating and set a $800.00 target price (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $717.90.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total transaction of $232,424.01. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 19,579 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,018,473.83. This represents a 2.07 % 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 the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 810,217 shares of company stock valued at $523,808,864. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock traded down $11.22 during trading on Friday, reaching $683.62. The company had a trading volume of 15,609,265 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,750,735. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $645.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $589.12. The company has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month 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, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 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 $0.525 dividend. This is a boost from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 8.36%.

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.