Vontobel Holding Ltd. Acquires 37,313 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 27.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 175,109 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 37,313 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $102,528,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. 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 report on Thursday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $935.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $717.90.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 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 value of $3,466,769.02. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares in the company, valued at $15,422,186.45. This trade represents a 18.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $703.21, for a total transaction of $13,830,734.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 810,217 shares of company stock worth $523,808,864. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded down $7.49 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $687.35. 9,296,446 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,553,415. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $645.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $589.12. 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 $1.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 last year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change 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 presently 8.36%.

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.