Seven Mile Advisory Grows Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Seven Mile Advisory increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 11.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,162 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 550 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for 1.9% of Seven Mile Advisory’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Seven Mile Advisory’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,022,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on META. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price target (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given 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, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 4.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $576.74 on Monday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day moving average of $655.23 and a 200-day moving average of $609.90.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $614.97, for a total transaction of $373,901.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 6,838 shares in the company, valued at $4,205,164.86. The trade was a 8.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $627.05, for a total value of $577,513.05. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 31,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,552,673.10. This trade represents a 2.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 584,410 shares of company stock worth $386,031,454 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.