Clarus Wealth Advisors Boosts Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Clarus Wealth Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 14.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,813 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 227 shares during the period. Clarus Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,103,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Fiera Capital Corp grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 35.1% during the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 27,272 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,751,000 after buying an additional 7,089 shares during the period. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.3% in the second quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 6,510 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,283,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. SilverOak Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the second quarter. SilverOak Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,086 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,565,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares during the period. Lyell Wealth Management LP increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 8.4% during the second quarter. Lyell Wealth Management LP now owns 48,480 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $24,445,000 after acquiring an additional 3,756 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Williams Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth about $6,650,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $650.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $617.12 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $595.02 and a 200-day moving average of $554.81. The company has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $358.61 and a 1 year high of $638.40.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $580.65, for a total transaction of $239,808.45. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,120 shares in the company, valued at $6,456,828. The trade was a 3.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,901,598. This represents a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 495,682 shares of company stock valued at $301,101,199 in the last quarter. 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.