Noesis Capital Mangement Corp Boosts Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Noesis Capital Mangement Corp grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 13.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 772 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the period. Noesis Capital Mangement Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $452,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,087,000 after buying an additional 808 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after buying an additional 897 shares during the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $459,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after buying an additional 118,298 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LS Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.4% in the 3rd quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,686,000 after buying an additional 6,155 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on META shares. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wolfe Research upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Pivotal Research upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $719.26.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total value of $22,746,973.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $677.71, for a total value of $13,554,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 308,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $209,199,589.06. This represents a 6.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 775,295 shares of company stock worth $504,237,715 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 4.3 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $627.93 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.59 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $656.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $599.31. 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, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.78%.

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.