M3 Advisory Group LLC Purchases 50 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

M3 Advisory Group LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,814 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 50 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 0.8% of M3 Advisory Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position. M3 Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,062,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lindenwold Advisors INC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 5,918 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,388,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $625,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 2,680 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,569,000 after buying an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the third quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC now owns 5,714 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,271,000 after buying an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the third quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,841 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,199,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $655.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $567.58, for a total value of $234,410.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,294 shares in the company, valued at $5,842,668.52. This trade represents a 3.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total transaction of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 661,312 shares of company stock worth $407,377,422 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $676.49 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The company has a market cap of $1.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.86, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $387.10 and a 1 year high of $682.58. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $608.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $563.58.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. 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 currently 9.42%.

About Meta Platforms

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.