Violich Capital Management Inc. Raises Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Violich Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 14.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,350 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 540 shares during the quarter. Violich Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,547,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $61,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total transaction of $232,424.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,018,473.83. This represents a 2.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $721.69, for a total value of $14,194,198.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 751,033 shares of company stock worth $480,911,671 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $736.67 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.80, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $638.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $584.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91.

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 period in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.36%.

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.