By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 531 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $311,000.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Cordant Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.
Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.1 %
Shares of META opened at $736.67 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $638.73 and a 200 day moving average of $583.52. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share 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 quarter last year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 EPS 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 issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.36%.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several brokerages have recently commented on META. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 price objective (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $717.90.
View Our Latest Analysis on Meta Platforms
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 902 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $713.32, for a total value of $643,414.64. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 27,488 shares in the company, valued at $19,607,740.16. This represents a 3.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 14,746 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $553.53, for a total transaction of $8,162,353.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 793,070 shares of company stock worth $504,185,108 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
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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