Lafayette Investments Inc. Purchases 114 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Lafayette Investments Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 28,655 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 114 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 2.5% of Lafayette Investments Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $10,143,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Opes Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $397,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $263,000. Fonville Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $304,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 16.7% in the 4th quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 11,119 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,936,000 after acquiring an additional 1,589 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Western Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC now owns 16,750 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,929,000 after acquiring an additional 756 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $465.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $385.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $519.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total value of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total transaction of $217,910.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 35,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,585,110. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total value of $45,601,669.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,421,182 shares of company stock worth $677,574,550. 13.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded down $12.66 during trading on Friday, reaching $489.14. 7,468,667 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,915,494. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $207.13 and a 52-week high of $531.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business’s fifty day moving average is $494.29 and its 200-day moving average is $397.43.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The firm had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.00 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 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.