Altus Wealth Group LLC Acquires 102 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Altus Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 13.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 849 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 102 shares during the quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $497,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $70,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,154,349.31. This represents a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 10,100 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $601.54, for a total value of $6,075,554.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 632,023 shares of company stock valued at $414,734,884 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of META stock opened at $584.06 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The company has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.42, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $656.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $604.69.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Benchmark upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Wolfe Research raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

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.