Ellenbecker Investment Group Boosts Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Ellenbecker Investment Group lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,151 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the quarter. Ellenbecker Investment Group’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $674,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after purchasing an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.4% during the third quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,686,000 after acquiring an additional 6,155 shares during the last quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 9,735 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,573,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 412,046 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $235,872,000 after purchasing an additional 5,594 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G PLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.6% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 721,339 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $412,606,000 after purchasing an additional 91,773 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Wedbush lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two equities research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $650.05.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $594.25 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a market capitalization of $1.50 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.99, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a 50 day moving average of $595.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $554.81. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $358.61 and a 12-month high of $638.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $574.70, for a total value of $520,103.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,612,808.90. The trade was a 2.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 1,131 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $652,767.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,229 shares in the company, valued at $709,329.64. The trade was a 47.92 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 423,427 shares of company stock worth $256,996,450. Company 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.