Howard Capital Management Group LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,716 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,005,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $82,314,000 after buying an additional 897 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,915,451,000 after buying an additional 118,298 shares during the last quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 111.4% in the third quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,686,000 after buying an additional 6,155 shares during the last quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the third quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 9,735 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,573,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 412,046 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $235,872,000 after buying an additional 5,594 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total transaction of $21,838,890.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 568,016 shares of company stock valued at $346,031,180 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research upped their price objective 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. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. 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, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $636.45 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $385.66 and a 12-month high of $638.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market cap of $1.61 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50-day moving average of $600.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $559.30.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 EPS 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 paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.