Moment Partners LLC Invests $970,000 in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Moment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 1,657 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $970,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $602.58 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The company has a market cap of $1.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $655.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $607.98.

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 return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on META shares. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $718.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,514 shares in the company, valued at $10,318,548.24. This represents a 2.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares in the company, valued at $38,154,349.31. This trade represents a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 584,823 shares of company stock valued at $386,274,777. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.