Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas Buys 214 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas increased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,403 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 214 shares during the quarter. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,407,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of META. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,470,870,000 after buying an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,266,531,000 after acquiring an additional 263,063 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,915,451,000 after acquiring an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,447,975,000 after acquiring an additional 9,500,444 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,101,602,000 after buying an additional 186,728 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total value of $23,160,423.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 602,612 shares of company stock worth $368,414,542 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $641.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.2 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $674.33 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $606.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $562.78. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $387.10 and a fifty-two week high of $682.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The firm has a market cap of $1.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

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.