Left Brain Wealth Management LLC Purchases 729 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Left Brain Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 23,830 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 729 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 5.3% of Left Brain Wealth Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Left Brain Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $13,953,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $27,470,870,000 after buying an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 263,063 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,344,552,000 after purchasing an additional 424,201 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,101,602,000 after purchasing an additional 186,728 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,908,382,000 after purchasing an additional 110,040 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research 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 has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $602.47, for a total transaction of $545,235.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,820 shares in the company, valued at $20,375,535.40. The trade was a 2.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 653,450 shares of company stock valued at $427,997,036. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $604.90 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $1.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.29, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $657.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $604.41. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 in the prior year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend 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.