Arlington Financial Advisors LLC Grows Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Arlington Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 24.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 649 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the quarter. Arlington Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $380,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $61,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $728.56 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $636.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $580.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.46, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $729.00. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,795 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $715.82, for a total value of $25,622,776.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 902 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $713.32, for a total value of $643,414.64. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 27,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,607,740.16. The trade was a 3.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 793,070 shares of company stock valued at $504,185,108. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on META. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Needham & Company LLC restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. DA Davidson raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $935.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $717.90.

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.