Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases 143 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,167 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,440,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of META. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its position in Meta Platforms by 32.5% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $261,680,000 after acquiring an additional 112,047 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.0% in the third quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 113,499 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $64,971,000 after purchasing an additional 2,211 shares during the last quarter. TFG Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.2% in the third quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 1,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $800,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Altus Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.3% in the third quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 747 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $428,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $719.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total transaction of $21,838,890.37. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total transaction of $232,424.01. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares in the company, valued at $11,018,473.83. The trade was a 2.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 810,217 shares of company stock worth $523,808,864. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $683.62 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The company’s 50 day moving average is $647.09 and its 200 day moving average is $591.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 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. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.36%.

About Meta Platforms

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.