Atlas Brown Inc. Increases Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Atlas Brown Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 5,864 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.2% of Atlas Brown Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest holding. Atlas Brown Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,433,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total value of $22,746,973.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $580.65, for a total value of $239,808.45. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 11,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,456,828. The trade was a 3.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 410,536 shares of company stock worth $249,024,275 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Truist Financial increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $646.90.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock traded up $6.11 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $616.83. 16,533,549 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,734,100. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $358.61 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The firm has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $592.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $552.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

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.