WealthCare Investment Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 559 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

WealthCare Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 559 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $200,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of META. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $4,223,148,000. Morgan Stanley acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $4,072,543,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $1,796,633,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $1,731,491,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at $36,157,645.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $5,185,255.68. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at $36,157,645.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $3,803,278.08. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 18,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,723,496.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,504,435 shares of company stock valued at $703,629,367 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.7 %

NASDAQ META traded down $8.28 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $485.58. The stock had a trading volume of 15,062,981 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,904,395. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $202.54 and a 1 year high of $523.57. The stock has a market cap of $1.24 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $464.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $375.30.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The firm’s revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.00 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.42%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on META. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $405.00 to $527.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $414.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $535.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $496.35.

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.