Stevens Capital Partners Buys 187 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Stevens Capital Partners increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 37.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 688 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 187 shares during the quarter. Stevens Capital Partners’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $403,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,087,000 after buying an additional 808 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after acquiring an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 118,298 shares during the period. LS Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 worth $6,686,000 after acquiring an additional 6,155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apollon Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $866,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 target price (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.49, for a total value of $238,503.37. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 19,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,068,173.34. The trade was a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 813,951 shares of company stock worth $526,565,232 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $668.20 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.69 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The business has a 50 day moving average of $653.18 and a 200-day moving average of $596.59.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 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 last year, the business posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.31%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

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.