Manchester Capital Management LLC Acquires 45 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,505 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,052,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 worth $5,447,975,000 after acquiring an additional 9,500,444 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 61,769.3% during the 3rd quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,132,870 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,365,820,000 after purchasing an additional 4,126,190 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 87,269.8% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,067,659 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $625,125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,066,437 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 4,658.5% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,548 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $520,662,000 after purchasing an additional 890,434 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,470,870,000 after buying an additional 698,884 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Scotiabank upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of META opened at $683.62 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $647.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $590.57. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,422,186.45. This trade represents a 18.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 810,217 shares of company stock worth $523,808,864. 13.71% of the stock is 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.