Ibex Wealth Advisors Purchases Shares of 21,655 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Ibex Wealth Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 21,655 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,679,000. Meta Platforms makes up 1.5% of Ibex Wealth Advisors’ portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $49,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total transaction of $4,038,190.08. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares in the company, valued at $21,416,908.60. The trade was a 15.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total value of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 661,804 shares of company stock worth $407,745,741 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $689.18 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $387.10 and a one year high of $710.79. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $613.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $567.04. The company has a market capitalization of $1.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.74% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 25.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Citigroup raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $710.83.

Meta Platforms Company 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.