Wealthstar Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 1,883 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Wealthstar Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,883 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,102,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth $61,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. KeyCorp raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.1 %

META stock opened at $736.67 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.80, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. The business’s 50-day moving average is $638.73 and its 200 day moving average is $583.52.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share 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 company posted $5.33 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.36%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total transaction of $4,038,190.08. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares in the company, valued at $21,416,908.60. The trade was a 15.86 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total value of $232,424.01. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 19,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,018,473.83. This represents a 2.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 793,070 shares of company stock worth $504,185,108 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.