Eastern Bank Grows Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Eastern Bank boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 156,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 342 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 1.7% of Eastern Bank’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $91,871,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. JMP Securities lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wolfe Research lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $650.05.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 420 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.17, for a total transaction of $252,071.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $310,890,460.68. The trade was a 0.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $580.65, for a total value of $239,808.45. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 11,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,456,828. This trade represents a 3.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 423,427 shares of company stock worth $256,996,450 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $608.33 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $358.61 and a twelve month high of $638.40. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $594.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $554.18. The firm has a market cap of $1.54 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

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.