Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV Has $5.30 Million Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV boosted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,980 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,302,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Donoghue Forlines LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 94.4% in the fourth quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC now owns 8,349 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,955,000 after acquiring an additional 4,054 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $159,841,000 after purchasing an additional 32,423 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management UK Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 400.0% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management UK Ltd. now owns 2,500 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $885,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Stockton boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signify Wealth acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $228,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Raymond James lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $525.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Susquehanna upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $509.80.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded up $12.44 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $478.22. The stock had a trading volume of 12,024,254 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,801,451. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market cap of $1.21 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $249.17 and a 1 year high of $531.49. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $484.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $426.02.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $480.00, for a total value of $280,800.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 41,908 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,115,840. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $441.54, for a total transaction of $216,354.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 6,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,913,722.46. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $480.00, for a total value of $280,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 41,908 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,115,840. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 886,466 shares of company stock worth $438,582,433 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.