Sawyer & Company Inc Boosts Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Sawyer & Company Inc grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,288 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 139 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 2.0% of Sawyer & Company Inc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Sawyer & Company Inc’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,438,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Roble Belko & Company Inc lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Roble Belko & Company Inc now owns 230 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $135,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 18.5% during the 4th quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 819 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $480,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Rockingstone Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Rockingstone Advisors LLC now owns 7,183 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,206,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC now owns 901 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $527,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wolff Wiese Magana LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 2,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,588,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $670.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $650.05.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $611.30 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $595.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $555.25. The company has a market cap of $1.54 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $358.61 and a 12-month high of $638.40. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. 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 payout ratio is 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total transaction of $5,166,159.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares in the company, valued at $29,776,261.56. The trade was a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $574.70, for a total value of $520,103.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 32,387 shares in the company, valued at $18,612,808.90. This represents a 2.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 496,174 shares of company stock valued at $301,408,499 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.