Wealth Alliance Has $6.67 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Wealth Alliance trimmed its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,383 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 133 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up 0.8% of Wealth Alliance’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Wealth Alliance’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,665,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its position in Meta Platforms by 32.5% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $261,680,000 after purchasing an additional 112,047 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 8.4% during the third quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 45,100 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $25,817,000 after buying an additional 3,495 shares during the last quarter. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the third quarter. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 805 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $461,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covenant Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 12.9% during the third quarter. Covenant Partners LLC now owns 3,782 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,165,000 after buying an additional 432 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 issued reports on META. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.26.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total transaction of $21,838,890.37. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.49, for a total transaction of $238,503.37. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,166 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,068,173.34. The trade was a 2.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 813,030 shares of company stock worth $525,952,077 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of META opened at $673.70 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $414.50 and a one year high of $740.91. The company has a market cap of $1.71 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $650.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $594.62.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 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 prior year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

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.