Acas LLC Takes $243,000 Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Acas LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 686 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $243,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 7.7% during the fourth 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. Bank of Stockton lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,819,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Signify Wealth acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $79,212,000 after purchasing an additional 4,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,880,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total value of $245,578.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 7,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,552,865.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,368,244 shares of company stock worth $657,034,449. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $375.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Raymond James raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $513.43.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META traded down $59.67 on Thursday, hitting $433.83. 35,054,114 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 17,512,055. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $495.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $403.14. The firm has a market cap of $1.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $208.88 and a one year high of $531.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 13.42%.

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.