Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Acquired by Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc.

Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 7.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 153,742 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,410 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $90,018,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Cordant Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Bear Mountain Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $70,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $590.00, for a total transaction of $243,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,576,930. This represents a 2.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 632,023 shares of company stock valued at $414,734,884 in the last quarter. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $584.06 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $656.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $604.69. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 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 period last year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

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.