BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. Acquires 41 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 496 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $290,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in 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 worth $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 22.2% in the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,188,000 after acquiring an additional 1,011 shares in the last quarter. Troy Asset Management Ltd grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Troy Asset Management Ltd now owns 101,634 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $58,179,000 after acquiring an additional 5,266 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrow Financial Corp grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Arrow Financial Corp now owns 13,646 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,812,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 target price (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 4.7 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $590.64 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $657.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $602.00. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total transaction of $243,323.08. Following 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 690,689 shares of company stock valued at $451,269,409 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.