Peterson Wealth Services Purchases 28 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Peterson Wealth Services lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 960 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the quarter. Peterson Wealth Services’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $340,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ESG Planning grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. ESG Planning now owns 2,487 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $880,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. HF Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 44.8% in the 4th quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 6,307 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,232,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 17.3% in the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 77,397 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,395,000 after purchasing an additional 11,443 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $159,841,000 after purchasing an additional 32,423 shares during the period. Finally, United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 33.8% in the 4th quarter. United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund now owns 223,612 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $79,150,000 after purchasing an additional 56,515 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 3.1 %

META stock traded up $15.33 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $509.50. The stock had a trading volume of 5,490,888 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,917,754. The firm has a market cap of $1.30 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50-day moving average of $493.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $396.70. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $207.13 and a 52-week high of $531.49. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.00 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.39%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.42%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total transaction of $253,697.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,924,027.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total value of $305,370.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 38,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,043,756. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total value of $253,697.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,924,027.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,440,278 shares of company stock valued at $684,796,490. Insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on META shares. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Mizuho raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $465.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $519.53.

Meta Platforms 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.