Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Holdings Raised by D Orazio & Associates Inc.

D Orazio & Associates Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,825 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 98 shares during the period. D Orazio & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,240,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of META. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $61,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on META. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Benchmark upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Roth Mkm boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued 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, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.4 %

META opened at $728.56 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $636.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $580.80. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $729.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market cap of $1.85 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.36%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 18,644 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $553.55, for a total transaction of $10,320,386.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 46,769 shares in the company, valued at $25,888,979.95. The trade was a 28.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 902 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $713.32, for a total value of $643,414.64. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 27,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,607,740.16. This trade represents a 3.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 793,070 shares of company stock worth $504,185,108 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.