Petros Family Wealth LLC Makes New $775,000 Investment in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Petros Family Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 1,323 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $775,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of META. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 114,192 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $66,861,000 after buying an additional 3,539 shares in the last quarter. Concorde Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Concorde Asset Management LLC now owns 1,385 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $811,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. KDK Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,171,000. Hobbs Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $475,000. Finally, Coign Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $1,402,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $543.57 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $1.38 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.72, a P/E/G 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $628.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $609.11.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 period last year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. Research 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 issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. This trade represents a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $606.77, for a total transaction of $250,596.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 16,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,125,777.76. This trade represents a 2.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 487,453 shares of company stock worth $326,680,904. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $790.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Scotiabank raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Two equities research 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 issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $701.38.

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.