Absolute Capital Management LLC Raises Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Absolute Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 23.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 605 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 114 shares during the quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $358,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of META. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,658,713,000 after acquiring an additional 6,240,810 shares during the period. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 61,769.3% during the 3rd quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,132,870 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,365,820,000 after acquiring an additional 4,126,190 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,243,603,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 87,269.8% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,067,659 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $625,125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,066,437 shares during the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 4,658.5% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,548 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $520,662,000 after purchasing an additional 890,434 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $604.46, for a total transaction of $21,712,807.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 20,935 shares in the company, valued at $15,422,186.45. The trade was a 18.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 622,844 shares of company stock worth $409,212,161. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 price target (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Susquehanna upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 price target (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $596.25 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.93, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $655.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $605.74.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the prior year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

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.