Flagship Wealth Advisors LLC Takes Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Flagship Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 457 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $268,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, Bear Mountain Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $70,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $718.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total transaction of $243,323.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,514 shares in the company, 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 622,844 shares of company stock valued at $409,212,161. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.3 %

META opened at $586.00 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $655.77 and a two-hundred day moving average of $604.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.50, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

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

Meta Platforms 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.