Perpetual Ltd Buys 976 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Perpetual Ltd increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,725 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 976 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $10,964,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,901,598. This trade represents a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $626.80, for a total value of $22,515,282.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 568,016 shares of company stock valued at $346,031,180 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on META shares. JMP Securities increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $636.45 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.61 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. 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 1-year low of $385.66 and a 1-year high of $638.40. The business’s 50 day moving average is $600.06 and its 200-day moving average is $559.30.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

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.