Little House Capital LLC Grows Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Little House Capital LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,291 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 2.7% of Little House Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Little House Capital LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,539,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 32.5% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $261,680,000 after acquiring an additional 112,047 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.0% in the third quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 113,499 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $64,971,000 after acquiring an additional 2,211 shares in the last quarter. TFG Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.2% in the third quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 1,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $800,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Altus Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.3% in the third quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 747 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $428,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on META. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Roth Mkm boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.26.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,018,473.83. This trade represents a 2.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 810,217 shares of company stock valued at $523,808,864. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $683.62 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $647.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $591.24. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 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 (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 quarter last year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.36%.

About Meta Platforms

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.