Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Bought by Berkeley Capital Partners LLC

Berkeley Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,011 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the quarter. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,177,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Seelaus Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $960,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Maiden Cove Capital LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Stephens Consulting LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 317 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $186,000 after purchasing an additional 16 shares during the period. Finally, VeraBank N.A. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. VeraBank N.A. now owns 1,954 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 16 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 target price (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho increased their target price 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. DA Davidson raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total transaction of $243,323.08. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,514 shares in the company, valued at $10,318,548.24. The trade was a 2.30 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. This represents a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 622,844 shares of company stock valued at $409,212,161 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.7 %

META opened at $596.25 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $655.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $605.74. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick 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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 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.