Wambolt & Associates LLC Decreases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Wambolt & Associates LLC reduced its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,499 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 275 shares during the period. Wambolt & Associates LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,463,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Momentous Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $617,000. Florida Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Florida Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,675 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,737,000 after acquiring an additional 396 shares in the last quarter. Aire Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Aire Advisors LLC now owns 7,307 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,278,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Potentia Wealth purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,870,000. Finally, PKS Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,121,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on META shares. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.4 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $610.98 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $656.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $608.02.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.76, for a total value of $535,542.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 32,915 shares in the company, valued at $19,477,780.40. This represents a 2.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 586,213 shares of company stock valued at $387,084,349 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.