OneAscent Financial Services LLC Boosts Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

OneAscent Financial Services LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 39.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,386 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 673 shares during the quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,397,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $19,949,512,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,658,713,000 after buying an additional 6,240,810 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $2,243,603,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 27.0% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 8,901,521 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,211,967,000 after acquiring an additional 1,892,509 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on META. UBS Group boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.55.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.7 %

META opened at $586.00 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $653.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $610.68. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $603.98, for a total transaction of $21,695,565.58. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.55, for a total value of $571,552.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 32,010 shares in the company, valued at $20,215,915.50. This represents a 2.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 583,505 shares of company stock valued at $385,495,911 in the last ninety days. Corporate 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.