Financial Harvest LLC Acquires New Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Financial Harvest LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 711 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $416,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. One Day In July LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. One Day In July LLC now owns 961 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $563,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Aspen Investment Management Inc increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Aspen Investment Management Inc now owns 1,523 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $892,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. Prakash Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $8,045,000. Forte Capital LLC ADV increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Forte Capital LLC ADV now owns 2,368 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,387,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. Finally, Parcion Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,244 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,899,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on META. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Argus set a $775.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Wolfe Research upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 target price (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $658.24 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $651.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $595.06. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The company has a market cap of $1.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.49, for a total value of $238,503.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 19,166 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,068,173.34. This represents a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 813,951 shares of company stock valued at $526,565,232 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.