Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Bought by Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC

Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,231 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the period. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,063,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of META. Twin City Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Twin City Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,689 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,331,000 after buying an additional 250 shares during the period. Dillon & Associates Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Dillon & Associates Inc. now owns 12,644 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,409,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $252,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Finally, Napatree Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 23.1% in the fourth quarter. Napatree Capital LLC now owns 1,336 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $782,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Argus set a $775.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ META opened at $626.31 on Wednesday. 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 has a market capitalization of $1.59 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.18, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $656.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $608.00. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS 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 last year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total transaction of $243,323.08. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 585,605 shares of company stock valued at $386,710,448. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms 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.