Modera Wealth Management LLC Grows Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Modera Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 32.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,110 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 2,745 shares during the quarter. Modera Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,505,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $70,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $623.50, for a total transaction of $257,505.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 18,753 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,692,495.50. This represents a 2.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $614.36, for a total value of $7,971,321.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 594,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $365,009,092.44. This represents a 2.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 775,295 shares of company stock valued at $504,237,715 over the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on META. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 price objective (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $625.66 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $656.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $600.49. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.59 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.16, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business 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 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

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.