Boston Financial Mangement LLC Purchases 287 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Boston Financial Mangement LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,496 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 287 shares during the period. Boston Financial Mangement LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $11,415,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $61,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of research reports. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 target price (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 price objective (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $673.70 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market cap of $1.71 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $650.26 and its 200 day moving average is $594.62. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 earned $5.33 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.49, for a total transaction of $238,503.37. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 19,166 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,068,173.34. The trade was a 2.11 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total transaction of $21,838,890.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 813,030 shares of company stock worth $525,952,077. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms 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.