Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Stake Boosted by My Legacy Advisors LLC

My Legacy Advisors LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 52.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,030 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 701 shares during the period. My Legacy Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,253,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $616.46 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $598.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $558.31. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $381.16 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on META. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $651.27.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total value of $4,038,190.08. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,416,908.60. The trade was a 15.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 14,746 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.53, for a total value of $8,162,353.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 531,190 shares of company stock worth $322,938,501 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.