Francis Financial Inc. Buys 163 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Francis Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,832 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the period. Francis Financial Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $648,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of META. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $4,223,148,000. Morgan Stanley acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,072,543,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $1,796,633,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,731,491,000. Finally, FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on META. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $405.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $496.35.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.7 %

NASDAQ META traded down $8.28 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $485.58. The company had a trading volume of 15,191,214 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,907,553. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.21. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $464.84 and a 200 day moving average of $375.30. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $202.54 and a 1-year high of $523.57.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.00 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 31,493 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $492.14, for a total value of $15,498,965.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $351.55, for a total value of $198,977.30. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,984 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,001,725.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 31,493 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $492.14, for a total value of $15,498,965.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,504,435 shares of company stock worth $703,629,367 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.75% 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.