Crowley Wealth Management Inc. Purchases Shares of 431 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 431 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $252,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in 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 during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 424,201 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.8% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 110,040 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,311 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.21, for a total value of $1,387,085.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total transaction of $243,323.08. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,514 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. This represents a 2.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 585,605 shares of company stock worth $386,710,448. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 3.9 %

META opened at $619.55 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.90, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $655.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $607.11. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Arete Research raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

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.