Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 10.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 6,768 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 664 shares during the period. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,963,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, November 25th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $650.05.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,901,598. This trade represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 496,174 shares of company stock valued at $301,408,499. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.2 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $612.77 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $596.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $556.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $370.95 and a one year high of $638.40. The stock has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19.

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. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.33%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

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.