By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Root Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 15.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,237 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 688 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 0.4% of Root Financial Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest position. Root Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,066,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 32.5% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $261,680,000 after purchasing an additional 112,047 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 21.0% in the third quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 4,409 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,524,000 after purchasing an additional 764 shares during the period. AIFG Consultants Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $246,000. Finally, Castleview Partners LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 13.3% in the third quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 914 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $523,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $935.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 price objective (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 assigned 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, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $717.90.
Read Our Latest Stock Report on Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms Stock Performance
Shares of META opened at $703.77 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $644.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $588.38. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.78 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 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 (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 previous year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.30%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $703.21, for a total value of $13,830,734.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total value of $232,424.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 19,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,018,473.83. This trade represents a 2.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 810,217 shares of company stock worth $523,808,864 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.
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.
Further Reading
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