Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Sold by Kapstone Financial Advisors LLC

Kapstone Financial Advisors LLC cut its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 9,123 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 132 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 2.9% of Kapstone Financial Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Kapstone Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,342,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $824,000. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,510 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $884,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 49.8% in the 4th quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 99,649 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $58,346,000 after purchasing an additional 33,108 shares during the period. GR Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 97.9% in the 4th quarter. GR Financial Group LLC now owns 1,037 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $607,000 after purchasing an additional 513 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,344,552,000 after purchasing an additional 424,201 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Pivotal Research increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.4 %

META opened at $625.66 on Monday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.59 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $656.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $600.95.

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 period in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost 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 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total transaction of $22,746,973.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 761,907 shares of company stock worth $496,008,888 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Company 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.