Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Buys 342 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,493 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 342 shares during the period. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,590,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Stone House Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 625.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 87 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 68.9% during the 3rd quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 103 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the period. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 65.2% during the 3rd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 109 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Wolfe Research lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $430.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.28.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.77, for a total transaction of $7,513,615.37. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.77, for a total value of $7,513,615.37. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total value of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares in the company, valued at $20,043,756. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,439,788 shares of company stock worth $684,542,792 over the last quarter. 14.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $499.76 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $207.13 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $493.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $396.01. The company has a market capitalization of $1.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.54, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The business’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.00 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.