Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Acquires 1,933 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. grew its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 10.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 20,250 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 1,933 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 0.9% of Lee Danner & Bass Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Lee Danner & Bass Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $11,857,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Finally, Bear Mountain Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $70,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Benchmark upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $604.46, for a total transaction of $21,712,807.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $590.00, for a total value of $243,670.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,576,930. The trade was a 2.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 622,844 shares of company stock valued at $409,212,161. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $596.25 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $655.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $605.74.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced 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 return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio 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.