Guardian Financial Partners LLC Buys Shares of 570 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Guardian Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 570 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $334,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 35.1% in the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 27,272 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,089 shares in the last quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 5.0% in the second quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. now owns 877 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $442,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. GDS Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.5% in the second quarter. GDS Wealth Management now owns 23,107 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $11,651,000 after buying an additional 2,391 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 706,450 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $356,206,000 after buying an additional 17,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DHK Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at approximately $252,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $616.16, for a total transaction of $22,133,083.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $5,166,159.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,776,261.56. This represents a 14.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 496,174 shares of company stock valued at $301,408,499 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on META. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $650.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $612.77 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $370.95 and a 52-week high of $638.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $596.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $556.39.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS 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 given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.33%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

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.