Atala Financial Inc Takes Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Atala Financial Inc purchased a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 2,407 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,409,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,928,185,000 after buying an additional 204,412 shares during the period. United Bank lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 22.2% in the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,188,000 after acquiring an additional 1,011 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 16.5% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,976,357 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,131,347,000 after acquiring an additional 280,266 shares during the period. Finally, Zions Bancorporation N.A. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 29,347 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $16,799,000 after purchasing an additional 3,575 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on META. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $604.90 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $657.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $604.41. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 22,035 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.63, for a total value of $13,631,512.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $595.00, for a total value of $547,995.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,649,280. The trade was a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 653,450 shares of company stock valued at $427,997,036 over the last quarter. 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.