Highland Financial Advisors LLC Invests $262,000 in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Highland Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 740 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $262,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 183,244,796 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $55,011,920,000 after acquiring an additional 1,733,182 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 88,542,953 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $25,410,057,000 after buying an additional 1,548,671 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,890,950,000 after purchasing an additional 1,184,978 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $4,223,148,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.55, for a total transaction of $198,977.30. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,984 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,001,725.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 31,493 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $492.14, for a total value of $15,498,965.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.55, for a total value of $198,977.30. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,984 shares in the company, valued at $13,001,725.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,504,435 shares of company stock valued at $703,629,367 in the last three months. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $385.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Raymond James raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $414.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $496.35.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $8.28 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $485.58. 15,212,764 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,086,339. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.24 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $202.54 and a 52 week high of $523.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $467.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $376.07.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.00 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.42%.

Meta Platforms 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.