Massachusetts Wealth Management Buys New Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Massachusetts Wealth Management bought a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 746 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $264,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sabal Trust CO raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Sabal Trust CO now owns 10,468 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,705,000 after acquiring an additional 1,244 shares in the last quarter. Retireful LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,406,000. Narwhal Capital Management raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 38,161 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,507,000 after acquiring an additional 1,730 shares in the last quarter. Financial Insights Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Financial Insights Inc. now owns 2,635 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $933,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Management Associates Inc acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $545,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on META shares. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $385.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $499.38.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $527.34 on Monday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $207.13 and a 12-month high of $530.70. The stock has a market cap of $1.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.39, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a 50-day moving average of $480.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $385.49.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.00 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.38%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,776 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.89, for a total transaction of $6,188,498.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,776 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.89, for a total transaction of $6,188,498.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $3,803,278.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 18,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,723,496.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,495,983 shares of company stock worth $705,134,392 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 14.03% of the company’s stock.

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.