Bison Wealth LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 63.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,812 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 6,526 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,232,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,928,185,000 after buying an additional 204,412 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.1% during the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,219 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,842,000 after buying an additional 269 shares in the last quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the third quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,633,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 17,048 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $9,704,000 after acquiring an additional 1,480 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of research firms recently weighed in on META. Citigroup dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $655.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Benchmark cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $675.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Two 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 issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $681.95.
View Our Latest Stock Report on Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.9 %
NASDAQ META opened at $554.44 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $427.11 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $581.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $604.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.18, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 period in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This is a boost from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.38%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.78%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $696.39, for a total transaction of $9,035,660.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 210,971 shares of the company's stock, valued at $146,918,094.69. The trade was a 5.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.87, for a total transaction of $453,012.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 27,498 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,525,441.26. This trade represents a 3.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 248,463 shares of company stock worth $175,403,314. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.
About Meta Platforms
(
Free Report)
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.
Further Reading
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