AFT Forsyth & Company Inc. Sells 85 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

AFT Forsyth & Company Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,449 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 85 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.3% of AFT Forsyth & Company Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest position. AFT Forsyth & Company Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,605,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $27,470,870,000 after purchasing an additional 698,884 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,266,531,000 after purchasing an additional 263,063 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in 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 buying an additional 118,298 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,447,975,000 after buying an additional 9,500,444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,101,602,000 after buying an additional 186,728 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on META. Roth Mkm increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $703.77 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $644.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $588.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.78 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its 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 return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $565.30, for a total value of $511,596.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 37,790 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,362,687. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 810,217 shares of company stock valued at $523,808,864. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.