Mason & Associates Inc Boosts Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Mason & Associates Inc boosted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 28.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,372 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the quarter. Mason & Associates Inc’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $803,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $612.77 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.86, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $370.95 and a 12-month high of $638.40. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $596.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $556.39.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid 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 yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $616.16, for a total value of $22,133,083.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $5,166,159.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,776,261.56. This represents a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 496,174 shares of company stock valued at $301,408,499. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on META shares. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Needham & Company LLC reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $650.05.

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.