MinichMacGregor Wealth Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

MinichMacGregor Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 58.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,135 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 417 shares during the quarter. MinichMacGregor Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $664,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. Lindenwold Advisors INC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 5,918 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,388,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 2,680 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,569,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the period. Central Valley Advisors LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the third quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC now owns 5,714 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,271,000 after buying an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.5% in the third quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,841 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,199,000 after buying an additional 18 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $647.49 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $385.66 and a 12-month high of $652.00. The company has a market cap of $1.63 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $601.93 and a 200 day moving average of $560.33. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total value of $255,234.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 16,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,057,950. This represents a 2.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 568,016 shares of company stock valued at $346,031,180 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Raymond James raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $654.20.

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.