Victory Financial Group LLC Raises Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Victory Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 39.2% in Q4 to 6,978 shares (worth $4.606M), making Meta about 0.6% of the fund's portfolio and its 28th largest holding.
• Analysts have been lifting targets and reiterating positive ratings—several raises pushed targets into the $850–$930 range, and MarketBeat's consensus is a "Moderate Buy" with a price target of $843.57.
• Insiders have been net sellers recently: 160,931 shares (~$103M) were sold over the past 90 days, including notable transactions by COO Javier Olivan and CTO Andrew Bosworth.

Victory Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 39.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,978 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,966 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 0.6% of Victory Financial Group LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Victory Financial Group LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,606,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Trust Co of the South lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Trust Co of the South now owns 1,850 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,359,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Sentinel Pension Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors LLC now owns 915 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $672,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Alpine Bank Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management now owns 4,301 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,159,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 454 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $334,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Finally, Vista Capital Partners Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. now owns 1,075 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $794,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $930.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $850.00 target price (up from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $900.00 target price (up from $870.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $885.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $843.57.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Sunday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.77, for a total transaction of $1,574,473.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 12,108 shares in the company, valued at $7,746,335.16. This trade represents a 16.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total value of $5,106,100.36. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 2,841 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 160,931 shares of company stock worth $102,997,526 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $573.02 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.38, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.31. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $635.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $657.61. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $479.80 and a 52 week high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $8.02 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.94%.

Meta Platforms Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc NASDAQ: META, formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta's core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.

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