West Wealth Group LLC Grows Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

West Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 33.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 799 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. West Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $468,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CKW Financial Group raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 138.5% during the 4th quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 477 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $279,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the period. Curran Financial Partners LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Curran Financial Partners LLC now owns 933 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $546,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Investments LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,054,000. McLean Asset Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 1,558 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $912,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Center For Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 12.3% during the fourth quarter. Center For Asset Management LLC now owns 4,367 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,557,000 after purchasing an additional 479 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total value of $232,424.01. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,018,473.83. The trade was a 2.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.70, for a total value of $511,497.70. Following the sale, the insider now owns 30,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,360,833.70. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ META opened at $687.00 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $611.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $564.44. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $387.10 and a one year high of $710.79. The company has a market capitalization of $1.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.42%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on META. Pivotal Research upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. 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 report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $706.76.

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.