Princeton Capital Management LLC Purchases 163 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Princeton Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 17.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the period. Princeton Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $651,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after buying an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% during 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 period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted 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 worth $4,101,602,000 after acquiring an additional 186,728 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on META. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Argus set a $775.00 price objective on Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two 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 issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $626.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.59 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.18, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $414.50 and a one year high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $656.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $608.00.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS 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 in the prior year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,311 shares of the company’s 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.25, for a total value of $552,830.25. Following the sale, the insider now owns 32,103 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,269,825.75. This trade represents a 2.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 585,605 shares of company stock worth $386,710,448 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.