861 Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Acquired by Syverson Strege & Co

Syverson Strege & Co bought a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 861 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $504,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its holdings 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 worth $946,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,928,185,000 after purchasing an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 22.2% during the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,188,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $6,885,000. Finally, KKM Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.1% in the 3rd quarter. KKM Financial LLC now owns 13,130 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,516,000 after purchasing an additional 988 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $626.31 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $656.24 and its 200-day moving average is $608.00. The company has a market cap of $1.59 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91.

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

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on META. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark raised Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.76, for a total value of $535,542.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,477,780.40. This trade represents a 2.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,785,747.13. This trade represents a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 585,605 shares of company stock valued at $386,710,448 in the last ninety days. 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.