Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC Grows Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,164 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 41 shares during the quarter. Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,267,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% in 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 buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position 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 valued at $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares during the period. United Bank raised its stake 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 last quarter. Tenere Capital LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 47.6% during the 3rd quarter. Tenere Capital LLC now owns 31,013 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $17,753,000 after acquiring an additional 10,004 shares during the period. Finally, Dunhill Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 176.0% in the 3rd quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 1,532 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $877,000 after purchasing an additional 977 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on META. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 price target (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 price target (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $718.55.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $606.77, for a total value of $250,596.01. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 16,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,125,777.76. This trade represents a 2.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $611.10, for a total value of $21,951,323.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 535,725 shares of company stock worth $356,391,449 in the last three months. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 5.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $504.73 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $648.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $610.77.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

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.