Bell Investment Advisors Inc Decreases Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Bell Investment Advisors Inc lessened its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 720 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 35 shares during the quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $422,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $70,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Arete Research upgraded Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.26.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $629.56, for a total value of $260,008.28. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 18,340 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,546,130.40. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 690,689 shares of company stock worth $451,269,409 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.9 %

META stock opened at $607.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.54 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The business’s 50-day moving average is $658.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $602.61. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 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.