VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC Trims Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC decreased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 34.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 550 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 285 shares during the quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $330,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,839 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,833,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Stockton grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,541 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,659,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the period. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 42,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $24,694,000 after acquiring an additional 1,100 shares in the last quarter. Physicians Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Physicians Financial Services Inc. now owns 12,943 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,578,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,384 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,738,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $719.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $665.75, for a total transaction of $613,155.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 34,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,212,039.50. The trade was a 2.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total transaction of $21,838,890.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 813,951 shares of company stock worth $526,565,232 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.5 %

META opened at $668.20 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $653.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $596.12. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $1.69 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.93, 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter last year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

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.