West Tower Group LLC Acquires 1,000 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

West Tower Group LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 125.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,800 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises 2.3% of West Tower Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. West Tower Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,054,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Saiph Capital LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 29.6% in the fourth quarter. Saiph Capital LLC now owns 858 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $502,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the period. Brooklyn FI LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6,288.6% in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn FI LLC now owns 35,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $20,950,000 after purchasing an additional 35,153 shares during the period. ProVise Management Group LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 18.6% in the fourth quarter. ProVise Management Group LLC now owns 17,971 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,522,000 after purchasing an additional 2,821 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 550,091 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $322,084,000 after purchasing an additional 9,738 shares during the period. Finally, OPTIMAS CAPITAL Ltd acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $2,810,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $596.25 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $655.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $605.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,514 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. The trade was a 2.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $604.46, for a total transaction of $21,712,807.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 622,844 shares of company stock worth $409,212,161. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.