812 Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Purchased by Hobbs Wealth Management LLC

Hobbs Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 812 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $475,000. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 0.5% of Hobbs Wealth Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest holding.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Coign Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,402,000. Heritage Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $8,672,000. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,518 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $889,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the period. Prepared Retirement Institute LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Prepared Retirement Institute LLC now owns 933 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $546,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC now owns 32,767 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $19,185,000 after buying an additional 945 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on META. Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Argus set a $775.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Benchmark upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Arete Research raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $704.62.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 6.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $546.29 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $631.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $609.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.38 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,785,747.13. This represents a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $606.77, for a total transaction of $250,596.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 16,688 shares in the company, valued at $10,125,777.76. This trade represents a 2.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 487,453 shares of company stock valued at $326,680,904. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.