Potentia Wealth Takes $2.87 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Potentia Wealth purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 4,902 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,870,000. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.3% of Potentia Wealth’s holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest holding.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $946,000 after buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 22.2% during the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,188,000 after acquiring an additional 1,011 shares during the period. Penserra Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 130.6% during the 3rd quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 1,898 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,085,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,565,134 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,758,146,000 after purchasing an additional 289,207 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on META. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $610.98 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $656.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $608.02. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,514 shares in the company, valued at $10,318,548.24. This trade represents a 2.30 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.76, for a total value of $535,542.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,477,780.40. The trade was a 2.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 586,213 shares of company stock worth $387,084,349 over the last three months. Company 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.