Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Purchases 1,489 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 54,134 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 1,489 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 0.9% of Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $31,695,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Bear Mountain Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $70,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Pivotal Research upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Arete Research upgraded Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $602.47, for a total transaction of $545,235.35. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,820 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,375,535.40. This trade represents a 2.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the firm’s 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 have sold 622,844 shares of company stock valued at $409,212,161 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.7 %

META opened at $596.25 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $655.38 and a 200 day moving average of $605.74. The firm has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 last year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

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

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.