Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC Increases Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,725 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 415 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.8% of Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,523,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after buying an additional 118,298 shares during the last quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 111.4% in the third quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,686,000 after acquiring an additional 6,155 shares in the last quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 9,735 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,573,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 412,046 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $235,872,000 after purchasing an additional 5,594 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G PLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 721,339 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $412,606,000 after purchasing an additional 91,773 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded up $7.79 during trading on Friday, hitting $618.51. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,475,796 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,765,066. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The firm has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50-day moving average of $592.65 and a 200-day moving average of $552.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $358.61 and a 12 month high of $638.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total value of $50,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,424 shares in the company, valued at $311,054,400. The trade was a 0.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $5,166,159.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,776,261.56. This trade represents a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 410,536 shares of company stock valued at $249,024,275. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on META. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Guggenheim raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $646.90.

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.