GM Advisory Group LLC Acquires 441 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

GM Advisory Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,915 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 441 shares during the period. GM Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,733,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Cordant Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. Finally, Bear Mountain Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $70,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Barclays increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.7 %

META stock opened at $596.25 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $655.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $605.08. The company has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91.

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 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 business earned $5.33 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 622,844 shares of company stock valued at $409,212,161 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% 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.