Spartan Planning & Wealth Management Makes New $2.28 Million Investment in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Spartan Planning & Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 3,899 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,283,000. Meta Platforms accounts for about 2.1% of Spartan Planning & Wealth Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,020 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,939,000 after buying an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 75,464 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $44,185,000 after acquiring an additional 970 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New Hampshire lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New Hampshire now owns 1,007 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $590,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. ShankerValleau Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $361,000. Finally, Advance Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Advance Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,042 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $610,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on META shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $652.00 to $641.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Two equities research 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.80.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $9.27 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $620.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,298,256 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,417,402. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The company has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.19. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $590.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $550.47. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $352.05 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $584.83, for a total transaction of $241,534.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 11,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,744,844.39. The trade was a 3.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 361,640 shares of company stock worth $219,037,690. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.