Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC Sells 31 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,680 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 31 shares during the quarter. Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $595,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. WoodTrust Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 1,547 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $548,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners now owns 4,566 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,616,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,468 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $520,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Edge Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC now owns 730 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $258,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 736 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $260,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on META shares. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $519.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total value of $217,910.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 35,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,585,110. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total transaction of $217,910.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 35,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,585,110. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $392.36, for a total transaction of $7,722,037.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,421,182 shares of company stock worth $677,574,550. Insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 4.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $20.73 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $481.07. The stock had a trading volume of 25,112,517 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,157,313. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $207.13 and a twelve month high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $494.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $397.43. The firm has a market cap of $1.23 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.00 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 13.42%.

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.