2,223 Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Purchased by Pennington Partners & CO. LLC

Pennington Partners & CO. LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 2,223 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $1,302,000. Meta Platforms accounts for about 0.6% of Pennington Partners & CO. LLC's holdings, making the stock its 20th largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Valley Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $344,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 during the period. Meredith Wealth Planning boosted its position 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 worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $282,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Riverwater Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $335,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of a number of research reports. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $683.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Argus set a $775.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Moffett Nathanson increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $665.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $696.45.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares of the company's stock, valued at $38,154,349.31. This trade represents a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total transaction of $296,813.44. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,622 shares in the company, valued at $2,744,547.96. This trade represents a 9.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 237,017 shares of company stock valued at $167,207,524. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock traded up $24.81 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $597.02. The stock had a trading volume of 24,702,127 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,455,871. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.96, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The business's fifty day moving average is $575.29 and its 200-day moving average is $603.80.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $4.71 EPS. Meta Platforms's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Meta Platforms Company 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.