Cathy Pareto & Associates Inc. Takes Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Cathy Pareto & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 1,205 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $705,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,447,975,000 after purchasing an additional 9,500,444 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 61,769.3% in the 3rd quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,132,870 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,365,820,000 after purchasing an additional 4,126,190 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 4,658.5% in the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,548 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $520,662,000 after purchasing an additional 890,434 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in 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 worth $27,470,870,000 after purchasing an additional 698,884 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service grew its position in Meta Platforms by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,318,046 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,471,822,000 after purchasing an additional 550,852 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total value of $24,195,307.97. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total transaction of $602,730.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 29,295 shares in the company, valued at $19,510,470. The trade was a 3.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 661,804 shares of company stock worth $407,745,741. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $687.00 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $611.00 and its 200-day moving average is $564.44. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $387.10 and a 12 month high of $710.79. The firm has a market cap 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 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 announced its quarterly 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 net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.33 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-six have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.