Blue Chip Partners LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Blue Chip Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 835 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Blue Chip Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $296,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. Merrion Investment Management Co LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $240,000. ACT Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $238,000. Solidarity Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $5,119,000. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 15.4% during the third quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 5,656 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after acquiring an additional 755 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lineweaver Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $423,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $540.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Wolfe Research cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $520.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.25, for a total transaction of $287,381.25. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,228 shares in the company, valued at $18,288,255. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.25, for a total transaction of $287,381.25. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,228 shares in the company, valued at $18,288,255. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,277,048 shares of company stock valued at $620,679,759. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $438.50 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.20. The company’s 50 day moving average is $494.48 and its 200 day moving average is $405.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.68, a current ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $229.85 and a 52-week high of $531.49.

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 the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

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.