Fonville Wealth Management LLC Takes Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Fonville Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 859 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $304,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. WoodTrust Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 1,547 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $548,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners now owns 4,566 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,616,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,468 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $520,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Edge Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC now owns 730 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $258,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 736 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total value of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares in the company, valued at $20,043,756. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares in the company, valued at $20,043,756. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $384.54, for a total value of $7,568,131.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,421,182 shares of company stock worth $677,574,550. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META traded down $12.66 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $489.14. 7,468,667 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,915,494. The company has a market cap of $1.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $207.13 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $494.29 and its 200 day moving average is $397.43.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.00 EPS. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.42%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Barclays upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $519.53.

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.