Morey & Quinn Wealth Partners LLC Acquires New Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Morey & Quinn Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 552 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $323,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of META. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew 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 acquiring an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 204,412 shares during the last quarter. United Bank boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 1,011 shares during the period. Penserra Capital Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 130.6% during the 3rd quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 1,898 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,085,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.6% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,565,134 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,758,146,000 after buying an additional 289,207 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of META stock opened at $610.98 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $656.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $608.02. The company has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.54, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,514 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. This represents a 2.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares in the company, valued at $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 586,213 shares of company stock valued at $387,084,349 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

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.