364 Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Purchased by Atwater Malick LLC

Atwater Malick LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 364 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $213,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target 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. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Pivotal Research boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $650.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.2 %

META stock opened at $612.77 on Monday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $370.95 and a 52 week high of $638.40. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $596.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $557.04. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.42%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total transaction of $21,838,890.37. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $5,166,159.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,776,261.56. The trade was a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 496,174 shares of company stock worth $301,408,499. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.