Richardson Financial Services Inc. Buys 362 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Richardson Financial Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 57.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 994 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 362 shares during the quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $588,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its position in Meta Platforms by 32.5% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $261,680,000 after acquiring an additional 112,047 shares during the last quarter. City Holding Co. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the third quarter. City Holding Co. now owns 31,731 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $18,164,000 after purchasing an additional 576 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 15.6% during the third quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 47,358 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $27,110,000 after purchasing an additional 6,384 shares during the period. Cape ANN Savings Bank grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.6% in the third quarter. Cape ANN Savings Bank now owns 2,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,552,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth about $713,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of META stock opened at $704.87 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. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $718.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.78 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $621.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $571.15.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 25.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.28%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total transaction of $5,166,159.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,776,261.56. This trade represents a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total transaction of $4,038,190.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 38,695 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,416,908.60. This represents a 15.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 700,241 shares of company stock valued at $434,752,368. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on META. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Hsbc Global Res raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $710.83.

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.