Bernard Wealth Management Corp. Invests $619,000 in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,057 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $619,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,000. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Finally, Conquis Financial LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on META. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $701.05.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $673.96, for a total value of $409,767.68. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,662 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,837,841.52. This trade represents a 6.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $677.71, for a total transaction of $13,554,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 308,686 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $209,199,589.06. This trade represents a 6.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 75,628 shares of company stock valued at $48,380,586. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META traded up $15.26 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $642.32. 9,473,309 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,474,756. The stock has a market cap of $1.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $575.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $609.55. 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $442.65 and a 12 month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $4.71 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

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.