PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Purchases 7,589 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,257,937 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 7,589 shares during the quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $736,534,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $70,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 price objective (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Argus set a $775.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, 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 note on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.3 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $619.56 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $658.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $602.08. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The company has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.00, for a total transaction of $370,272.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 8,054 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,904,886. The trade was a 7.02 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $622.24, for a total transaction of $22,351,483.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 725,689 shares of company stock valued at $473,072,897 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.