Ritholtz Wealth Management Purchases 369 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 28,841 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 369 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $10,209,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairfield Bush & CO. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $66,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 12.5% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,244,201 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $499,020,000 after buying an additional 249,926 shares during the last quarter. Ergoteles LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 284.0% in the first quarter. Ergoteles LLC now owns 3,356 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $746,000 after purchasing an additional 2,482 shares in the last quarter. First Western Trust Bank purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at $813,000. Finally, Oxford Financial Group Ltd. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 26.9% in the first quarter. Oxford Financial Group Ltd. now owns 1,888 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $420,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total transaction of $239,134.70. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 79,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,015,070.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total value of $239,134.70. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 79,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,015,070.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,504,435 shares of company stock valued at $703,629,367 over the last ninety days. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of META stock traded down $8.28 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $485.58. 15,191,214 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,907,553. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $464.84 and its 200-day moving average is $375.30. The company has a market cap of $1.24 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $202.54 and a fifty-two week high of $523.57.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.00 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of several recent research reports. Raymond James lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $405.00 to $527.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $465.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $385.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $535.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $496.35.

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.