Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Purchases 16,244 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 10.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 173,632 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 16,244 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.0% of Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $101,663,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $59,000. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $70,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on META. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Needham & Company LLC reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $607.60 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $658.01 and a 200-day moving average of $603.80. The stock has a market cap of $1.54 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.40, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. This represents a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 654,355 shares of company stock valued at $428,564,164 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.