True North Advisors LLC Has $1.36 Million Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

True North Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,329 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 190 shares during the quarter. True North Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,364,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on META. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Two 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $654.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total transaction of $4,038,190.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares in the company, valued at $21,416,908.60. This represents a 15.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 14,746 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.53, for a total value of $8,162,353.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 568,016 shares of company stock worth $346,031,180. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $647.49 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $601.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $560.33. The firm has a market cap of $1.63 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.50, a PEG ratio of 1.18 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 $652.00.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. Research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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