Brown Financial Advisors Buys 223 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Brown Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,444 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 1.5% of Brown Financial Advisors’ portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Brown Financial Advisors’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,773,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $61,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Argus set a $775.00 price objective on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of META stock opened at $655.05 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.66 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The business has a 50-day moving average of $654.28 and a 200 day moving average of $597.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side 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 announced 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 of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. This trade represents a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 22,946 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $621.84, for a total value of $14,268,740.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 796,712 shares of company stock worth $517,503,564 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is 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.