First Affirmative Financial Network Sells 149 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

First Affirmative Financial Network lowered its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,821 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 149 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 0.9% of First Affirmative Financial Network’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest holding. First Affirmative Financial Network’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,652,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its position in Meta Platforms by 32.5% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $261,680,000 after purchasing an additional 112,047 shares during the period. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 445,052 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $254,766,000 after buying an additional 27,453 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 26.6% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 30,902 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $17,690,000 after buying an additional 6,500 shares during the last quarter. Herbst Group LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 13.4% during the third quarter. Herbst Group LLC now owns 8,437 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,830,000 after buying an additional 999 shares during the period. Finally, WealthBridge Capital Management LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 15.9% during the third quarter. WealthBridge Capital Management LLC now owns 4,023 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,303,000 after acquiring an additional 552 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Roth Mkm lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned 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 a consensus price target of $710.83.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $689.18 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $1.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $387.10 and a 52 week high of $710.79. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $613.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $567.04.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.74% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 25.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total transaction of $4,038,190.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,416,908.60. This represents a 15.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total value of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 661,804 shares of company stock worth $407,745,741 in the last 90 days. Corporate 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.