Values Added Financial LLC Sells 20 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Values Added Financial LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,143 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 20 shares during the quarter. Values Added Financial LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $669,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of META. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 32.5% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $261,680,000 after purchasing an additional 112,047 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Trilogy Capital Inc. grew its position in Meta Platforms by 21.0% during the 3rd quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 4,409 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,524,000 after purchasing an additional 764 shares during the period. AIFG Consultants Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $246,000. Finally, Castleview Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.3% during the 3rd quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 914 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $523,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on META. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $703.77 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.78 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $644.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $588.38.

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, topping the consensus estimate 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 period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.30%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $565.30, for a total transaction of $511,596.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,790 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,362,687. This trade represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total transaction of $232,424.01. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 19,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,018,473.83. The trade was 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 810,217 shares of company stock valued at $523,808,864 over the last ninety days. Corporate 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.