Shoker Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases 126 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Shoker Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the quarter. Shoker Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,055,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,087,000 after acquiring an additional 808 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $82,314,000 after acquiring an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,915,451,000 after acquiring an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.4% during the third quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,686,000 after acquiring an additional 6,155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apollon Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $866,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Scotiabank upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price target (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $719.26.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total value of $559,290.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 35,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,019,340. This trade represents a 2.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 22,946 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $621.84, for a total value of $14,268,740.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 797,320 shares of company stock valued at $517,913,331 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.6 %

META stock opened at $656.47 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The business’s 50-day moving average is $655.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $599.11. 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 company has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a P/E/G 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 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 period in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.32%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.