Investment Advisory Group LLC Sells 99 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Investment Advisory Group LLC lessened its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,673 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 99 shares during the quarter. Investment Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $946,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of META. Bank of Stockton increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,819,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Signify Wealth purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $228,000. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,880,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Keel Point LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 6,690 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,008,000 after purchasing an additional 399 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Syntegra Private Wealth Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $269,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $509.28.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.77, for a total value of $7,513,615.37. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.77, for a total transaction of $7,513,615.37. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total transaction of $217,910.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 35,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,585,110. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,459,469 shares of company stock worth $691,726,161 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 14.03% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ META traded up $3.07 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $503.30. The stock had a trading volume of 4,076,219 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,068,113. The business’s 50 day moving average is $492.26 and its 200-day moving average is $394.61. The company has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.64, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $207.13 and a 52 week high of $531.49. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The business’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.00 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.06 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.42%.

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.