Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC Takes $170,000 Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 290 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $170,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,087,000 after purchasing an additional 808 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares during the period. Brueske Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $459,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,915,451,000 after purchasing an additional 118,298 shares during the period. Finally, LS Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 111.4% during the 3rd quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,686,000 after purchasing an additional 6,155 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price target (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of META opened at $625.66 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.59 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. 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 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $656.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $600.49.

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, topping 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 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $623.50, for a total transaction of $257,505.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 18,753 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,692,495.50. This trade represents a 2.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through 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 stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 775,295 shares of company stock worth $504,237,715 over the last quarter. Company 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.