Seven Mile Advisory Grows Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Seven Mile Advisory boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 11.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,162 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 550 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.9% of Seven Mile Advisory’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Seven Mile Advisory’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,022,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of META. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 4.3 %

Shares of META stock opened at $576.74 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $655.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $609.90. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. 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 market cap of $1.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.11, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its 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 quarter last year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $603.98, for a total value of $21,695,565.58. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $627.05, for a total transaction of $577,513.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 31,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,552,673.10. This represents a 2.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 584,410 shares of company stock worth $386,031,454 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.