ST. Nicholas Private Asset Management Inc. Purchases Shares of 2,589 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

ST. Nicholas Private Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 2,589 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,516,000. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.4% of ST. Nicholas Private Asset Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fisher Funds Management LTD bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $119,829,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 36,940 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $21,629,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 38,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $22,311,000 after buying an additional 1,909 shares during the last quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL now owns 6,687 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,915,000 after buying an additional 541 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sigma Planning Corp grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 32,632 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $19,106,000 after buying an additional 1,685 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $668.20 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $653.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $596.12. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.69 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 last year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.78%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $686.28, for a total value of $417,258.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 9,270 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,361,815.60. This trade represents a 6.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $665.75, for a total value 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 $23,212,039.50. The trade was a 2.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 813,951 shares of company stock valued at $526,565,232 over the last three months. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on META. Truist Financial upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two research 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $719.26.

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.