Gradient Investments LLC Purchases 5,579 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Gradient Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 110,036 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,579 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.3% of Gradient Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $64,427,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of META. Lindenwold Advisors INC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 5,918 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,388,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $625,000 after buying an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 2,680 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,569,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the period. Central Valley Advisors LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC now owns 5,714 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,271,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,841 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,199,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on META. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Two 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $659.88 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $604.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $561.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The firm has a market cap of $1.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.08, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $387.10 and a 1-year high of $663.87.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total value of $23,160,423.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.55, for a total transaction of $571,552.75. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,215,915.50. The trade was a 2.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 603,032 shares of company stock valued at $368,666,614. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.