Key Financial Inc Has $749,000 Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Key Financial Inc boosted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,279 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 17 shares during the quarter. Key Financial Inc’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $749,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Cordant Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $61,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Pivotal Research raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 price target (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $719.26.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.49, for a total transaction of $238,503.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,166 shares in the company, valued at $11,068,173.34. This represents a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 812,422 shares of company stock valued at $525,534,818 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.3 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $668.13 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $647.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $593.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.69 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 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 period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

Meta Platforms 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.