By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Kanawha Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 970 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 45 shares during the quarter. Kanawha Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $568,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted 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 purchasing an additional 112,047 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted 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 purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the third quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,543 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $883,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Waterway Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 146.1% during the third quarter. Waterway Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,137 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $651,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Townsend Asset Management Corp NC ADV lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.4% during the third quarter. Townsend Asset Management Corp NC ADV now owns 1,095 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $627,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.
Meta Platforms Stock Performance
NASDAQ:META opened at $694.84 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $645.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $589.12. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market cap of $1.76 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.20.
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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 EPS for the current year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.36%.
Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms
In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $703.21, for a total value of $13,830,734.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 810,217 shares of company stock valued at $523,808,864 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Roth Mkm raised their target price 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. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Arete Research raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Two 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $717.90.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Meta Platforms
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.
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