Hartline Investment Corp Increases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Hartline Investment Corp boosted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 15.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,580 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 477 shares during the period. Hartline Investment Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $159,841,000 after purchasing an additional 32,423 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Stockton lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Signify Wealth purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $79,212,000 after purchasing an additional 4,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,880,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total value of $245,578.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,552,865.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total value of $245,578.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,552,865.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,368,244 shares of company stock worth $657,034,449. Company insiders own 14.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $430.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $520.28.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded down $2.60 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $493.50. 34,966,586 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,341,254. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $495.52 and its 200 day moving average is $402.50. The firm has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $207.13 and a 1 year high of $531.49.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

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.