1,703 Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Bought by Sincerus Advisory LLC

Sincerus Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,703 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $997,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Nadler Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.4% during the third quarter. Nadler Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,668 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,672,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Absher Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the third quarter. Absher Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,455 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,978,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 35.7% during the third quarter. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC now owns 7,360 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,213,000 after acquiring an additional 1,937 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sitrin Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.9% in the third quarter. Sitrin Capital Management LLC now owns 10,724 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,139,000 after purchasing an additional 874 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 22,946 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $677.71, for a total value of $13,554,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 308,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $209,199,589.06. The trade was a 6.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 796,712 shares of company stock worth $517,503,564 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price target (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Arete Research upgraded Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $640.00 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.62 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.76, 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 company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $654.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $598.70.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its 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 previous year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

About Meta Platforms

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.