W Advisors LLC Purchases 116 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

W Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,558 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the period. W Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $912,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $689.18 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.81, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $613.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $565.78. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $387.10 and a 1 year high of $710.79.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.74% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 25.44 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Benchmark raised shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday. Roth Mkm lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $706.76.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.70, for a total transaction of $511,497.70. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,360,833.70. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.