Valley Forge Investment Consultants Inc. ADV Buys 278 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Valley Forge Investment Consultants Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 52.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 806 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the period. Valley Forge Investment Consultants Inc. ADV’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $472,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,928,185,000 after buying an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 22.2% in the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,188,000 after buying an additional 1,011 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $625,000. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 38.6% during the third quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 20,773 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $11,891,000 after acquiring an additional 5,786 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $603.98, for a total value of $21,695,565.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total transaction of $243,323.08. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. This represents a 2.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 584,823 shares of company stock worth $386,274,777. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $576.74 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91. The company has a fifty day moving average of $655.23 and a 200-day moving average of $608.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 last year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on META. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America lifted their price objective 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. DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

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.