Sanctuary Advisors LLC Grows Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 251,847 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 660 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 0.9% of Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $147,459,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,087,000 after buying an additional 808 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after purchasing an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 111.4% in the 3rd quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,686,000 after purchasing an additional 6,155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apollon Financial LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $866,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on META. Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.26.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 value of $13,830,734.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 809,804 shares of company stock worth $523,576,440. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of META opened at $683.62 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $647.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $591.96. The firm has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted 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 quarter in the prior year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

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.