Private Wealth Management Group LLC Grows Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Private Wealth Management Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 588 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Private Wealth Management Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $344,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of META. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $61,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the subject of a number of research reports. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Pivotal Research upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Arete Research raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $719.80 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $725.01. The company has a market cap of $1.82 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $631.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $578.74.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 previous year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.36%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $5,166,159.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,591 shares in the company, valued at $29,776,261.56. This represents a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 756,735 shares of company stock worth $475,285,232 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.