BridgePort Financial Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,297 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $1,345,000.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of META. Valley Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $344,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,743,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $960,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maiden Cove Capital LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $282,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total value of $4,532,440.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 70,040 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $46,181,574.40. This represents a 8.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $673.96, for a total transaction of $409,767.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,662 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,837,841.52. This represents a 6.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 56,664 shares of company stock valued at $35,484,670 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several equities analysts have issued reports on META shares. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $683.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $701.05.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.7%
NASDAQ META traded down $4.82 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $640.24. 6,418,533 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,437,873. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $578.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $610.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.61 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.76, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. Meta Platforms's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.71 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is 8.19%.
Meta Platforms Profile
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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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