Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. Buys 263 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,140 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 263 shares during the quarter. Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,595,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of META. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 32.5% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $261,680,000 after purchasing an additional 112,047 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the third quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,526 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $889,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the third quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,326 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $759,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the third quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 340,762 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $195,066,000 after purchasing an additional 2,465 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $623.50, for a total transaction of $257,505.50. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 18,753 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,692,495.50. This represents a 2.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 796,712 shares of company stock valued at $517,503,564 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Argus set a $775.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.0 %

META stock opened at $655.05 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $654.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $597.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

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.