Okabena Investment Services Inc. Buys 241 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Okabena Investment Services Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 19.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,466 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 241 shares during the period. Okabena Investment Services Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $858,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Allianz SE bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $59,219,000. Tucker Asset Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 27.1% in the 4th quarter. Tucker Asset Management LLC now owns 399 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $234,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA now owns 3,931 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Valley Forge Investment Consultants Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 52.7% during the 4th quarter. Valley Forge Investment Consultants Inc. ADV now owns 806 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $472,000 after buying an additional 278 shares during the period. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $43,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on META. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Argus set a $775.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 4.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $576.74 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $655.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $608.48.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results 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 last year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,422,186.45. The trade was a 18.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 584,823 shares of company stock worth $386,274,777. 13.71% of the stock is owned by 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.