L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP Grows Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,145 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 75 shares during the quarter. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,256,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Cordant Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $61,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to 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 stock opened at $736.67 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $641.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $585.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $414.50 and a one year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 last year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $721.69, for a total transaction of $14,194,198.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $565.30, for a total value of $511,596.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 37,790 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,362,687. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 751,033 shares of company stock valued at $480,911,671. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Company 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.