Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. Raises Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 219.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,549 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,064 shares during the period. Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $907,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth about $61,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $721.69, for a total transaction of $14,194,198.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at $1,901,598. This trade represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 812,198 shares of company stock valued at $515,102,208 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $725.38 on Thursday. 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 company has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.33, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $727.10. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $634.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $579.77.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on META. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Truist Financial upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $935.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $717.90.

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.