Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Sold by McClarren Financial Advisors Inc.

McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. lessened its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 64.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 317 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 566 shares during the period. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $185,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,915 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,707,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. MFG Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,149,000. Hidden Cove Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $474,000. Naples Global Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 8,037 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,706,000 after purchasing an additional 511 shares during the period. Finally, BCR Wealth Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. BCR Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 2,483 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,453,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Pivotal Research raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.8 %

Shares of META stock opened at $715.91 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $643.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $587.57.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given 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 of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.36%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 902 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $713.32, for a total transaction of $643,414.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 27,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,607,740.16. The trade was a 3.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $734.49, for a total transaction of $14,445,949.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 770,701 shares of company stock valued at $495,357,621. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.