Northwest Financial Advisors Grows Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Northwest Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 12.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 3,651 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 393 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.7% of Northwest Financial Advisors' investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Northwest Financial Advisors' holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,104,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after buying an additional 1,502,553 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $28,719,970,000 after buying an additional 1,020,519 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $24,777,282,000 after buying an additional 1,049,121 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $23,606,338,000 after buying an additional 1,141,355 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $19,949,512,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wedbush upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Tigress Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated an "underperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $683.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One equities 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $702.48.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META traded up $13.09 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $697.71. 11,707,462 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,510,579. 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 $585.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $613.90. The company has a market cap of $1.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.71 EPS. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.00, for a total value of $370,272.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,054 shares in the company, valued at $4,904,886. This represents a 7.02% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $595.00, for a total value of $547,995.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 33,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,649,280. The trade was a 2.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,171 shares of company stock worth $35,163,457 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.