Hansen & Associates Financial Group Inc. Reduces Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Hansen & Associates Financial Group Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 84.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,578 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 8,404 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 0.5% of Hansen & Associates Financial Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. Hansen & Associates Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $947,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of META. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $49,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned 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 $710.83.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $704.19 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $618.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $570.21. The company has a market cap of $1.78 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $710.79.

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, topping 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 25.94 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given 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 dividend yield of 0.28%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.36%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value 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 $1,901,598. This represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 14,746 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $553.53, for a total value of $8,162,353.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 673,878 shares of company stock worth $416,269,904. 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.