HCR Wealth Advisors Has $10.66 Million Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

HCR Wealth Advisors boosted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,202 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises 1.3% of HCR Wealth Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. HCR Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $10,658,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,470,870,000 after acquiring an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,266,531,000 after purchasing an additional 263,063 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings 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 valued at $7,915,451,000 after purchasing an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,447,975,000 after purchasing an additional 9,500,444 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,754,450 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,911,029,000 after buying an additional 208,677 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $574.16, for a total value of $237,128.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,147,531.12. This represents a 3.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total transaction of $22,746,973.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 496,174 shares of company stock valued at $301,408,499. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ META opened at $611.30 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $358.61 and a 52 week high of $638.40. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $595.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $555.25. The company has a market cap of $1.54 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wedbush increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $650.05.

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.