Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 1,062 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 13.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,897 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,062 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,209,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Seelaus Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $960,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the period. Meredith Wealth Planning boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Stephens Consulting LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 317 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $186,000 after purchasing an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VeraBank N.A. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. VeraBank N.A. now owns 1,954 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 16 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,311 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.21, for a total value of $1,387,085.31. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.25, for a total value of $552,830.25. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,103 shares in the company, valued at $19,269,825.75. This trade represents a 2.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 585,605 shares of company stock valued at $386,710,448 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 3.9 %

META stock opened at $619.55 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $655.60 and a 200-day moving average of $607.11. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.57 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.90, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on META. Scotiabank raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 target price (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

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.