Birch Capital Management LLC Makes New $94,000 Investment in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Birch Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 160 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $94,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 2,000.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 105 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $629.56, for a total value of $260,008.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 18,340 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,546,130.40. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $603.98, for a total value of $21,695,565.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 361,640 shares of company stock valued at $219,037,690. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on META. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Roth Mkm increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $675.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.80.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of META stock traded down $8.58 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $621.62. 8,334,574 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,651,547. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $590.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $550.47. The stock has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.28, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $352.05 and a 12-month high of $638.40. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

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.