Apollon Financial LLC Purchases 148 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Apollon Financial LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 11.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 148 shares during the quarter. Apollon Financial LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $866,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Almanack Investment Partners LLC. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Almanack Investment Partners LLC. now owns 2,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,493,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. TFG Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 1,436 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $841,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 12.3% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 9,386 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,496,000 after buying an additional 1,027 shares in the last quarter. Clientfirst Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Finally, Austin Asset Management Co Inc boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Austin Asset Management Co Inc now owns 1,726 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,011,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $935.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Roth Mkm upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report 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 company. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $717.90.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $721.69, for a total transaction of $14,194,198.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total value of $232,424.01. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 19,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,018,473.83. The trade was a 2.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 793,070 shares of company stock worth $504,185,108 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $728.56 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $636.47 and a 200-day moving average of $580.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market cap of $1.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $729.00.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS 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 last year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.36%.

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.