Oarsman Capital Inc. Acquires 117 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Oarsman Capital Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,889 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,863,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Benchmark raised Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.55.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 5.1 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $504.73 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.10, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $648.15 and a 200 day moving average of $609.75.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm 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 was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,785,747.13. This represents a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $631.55, for a total value of $571,552.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,215,915.50. This trade represents a 2.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 549,113 shares of company stock worth $364,668,246 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.