Alta Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 20 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Alta Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 6,832 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises 1.8% of Alta Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Alta Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,000,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management now owns 3,299 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,932,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Intergy Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Intergy Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,152 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,260,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Narus Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 16.7% in the 4th quarter. Narus Financial Partners LLC now owns 3,582 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,097,000 after purchasing an additional 513 shares during the period. CMG Global Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 27.1% in the 4th quarter. CMG Global Holdings LLC now owns 770 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $480,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the period. Finally, Evernest Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,590 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $931,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $696.39, for a total transaction of $9,035,660.25. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 210,971 shares in the company, valued at approximately $146,918,094.69. This trade represents a 5.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total transaction of $2,918,698.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 8,565 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,943,375.40. The trade was a 37.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 673,878 shares of company stock worth $416,269,904 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $710.83.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.0 %

META opened at $704.19 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $618.86 and a 200 day moving average of $570.21. The company has a market cap of $1.78 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $710.79. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 25.94 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.36%.

About Meta Platforms

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.