Harbour Investments Inc. Grows Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Harbour Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 11,050 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 523 shares during the quarter. Harbour Investments Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,470,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $59,000. Finally, Bear Mountain Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $70,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.3 %

META stock opened at $584.06 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.42, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $656.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $604.69.

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, 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $0.525 per share. 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 0.36%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $602.47, for a total value of $545,235.35. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,820 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,375,535.40. The trade was a 2.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 value of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 632,023 shares of company stock valued at $414,734,884 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on META. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

Meta Platforms 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.