Defined Wealth Management LLC Grows Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Defined Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 645 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Defined Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $378,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in META. Fiera Capital Corp increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 35.1% in the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 27,272 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,089 shares during the period. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 27,122 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,675,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Andar Capital Management HK Ltd bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at about $5,446,000. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.2% in the second quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 16,519 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,329,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meridian Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.7% in the second quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,882 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,453,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total transaction of $22,746,973.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $574.70, for a total transaction of $520,103.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,612,808.90. This represents a 2.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 496,174 shares of company stock valued at $301,408,499 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $612.77 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $596.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $556.71. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $370.95 and a 12 month high of $638.40. The firm has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $670.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $650.05.

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.