B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 83.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,434 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 12,184 shares during the quarter. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,425,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,087,000 after acquiring an additional 808 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after purchasing an additional 118,298 shares during the period. LS Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 111.4% in the 3rd quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,686,000 after purchasing an additional 6,155 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 9,735 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,573,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Roth Mkm upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $674.33 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $1.70 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.76, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $387.10 and a fifty-two week high of $682.58. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $606.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $562.78. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $567.58, for a total value of $234,410.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,842,668.52. This trade represents a 3.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $17,360,833.70. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 602,612 shares of company stock worth $368,414,542. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms 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.