Global Wealth Strategies & Associates Boosts Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Global Wealth Strategies & Associates increased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 7.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 563 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $330,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $49,000. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2,000.0% during the third quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 105 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.6 %

Meta Platforms stock traded up $9.47 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $594.98. 7,331,318 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,682,313. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $588.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $547.83. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $343.17 and a 12-month high of $638.40. The firm has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.20.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.42%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $583.73, for a total transaction of $241,080.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 11,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,973,238.58. This trade represents a 3.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 326,211 shares of company stock valued at $197,633,759. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on META shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, September 26th. JMP Securities increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $675.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $640.20.

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.