L.M. Kohn & Company Acquires 424 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

L.M. Kohn & Company raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 12.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,703 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 424 shares during the quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,168,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,167 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,440,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Copperleaf Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Copperleaf Capital LLC now owns 4,406 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,580,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the last quarter. Palouse Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Palouse Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,884,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. WD Rutherford LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. WD Rutherford LLC now owns 5,460 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,197,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lee Financial Co lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Lee Financial Co now owns 1,995 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,168,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $683.62 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $647.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $591.24. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. 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%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on META shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.26.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $703.21, for a total transaction of $13,830,734.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total value of $232,424.01. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,018,473.83. The trade was a 2.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 810,217 shares of company stock valued at $523,808,864. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company 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.