PDS Planning Inc Purchases 132 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

PDS Planning Inc grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 9,950 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 132 shares during the quarter. PDS Planning Inc’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,826,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Bear Mountain Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $70,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on META shares. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. 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. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Arete Research upgraded Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $586.00 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $655.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $604.56.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 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 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $602.47, for a total transaction of $545,235.35. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,820 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,375,535.40. The trade was a 2.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $590.00, for a total transaction of $243,670.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,576,930. This represents a 2.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 622,844 shares of company stock valued at $409,212,161. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.