Saturna Capital Corp Buys 420 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Saturna Capital Corp increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 12.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,925 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 420 shares during the quarter. Saturna Capital Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,298,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,087,000 after purchasing an additional 808 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares during the period. Brueske Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $459,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the third 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 purchasing an additional 118,298 shares during the period. Finally, Apollon Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $866,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.9 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $607.60 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.54 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $658.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $603.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $595.00, for a total value of $547,995.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 33,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,649,280. The trade was a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 654,355 shares of company stock worth $428,564,164 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of several research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Argus set a $775.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 price target (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two research 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Company 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.