Heritage Wealth Management Inc. CA Acquires 802 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Heritage Wealth Management Inc. CA grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 62.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,079 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 802 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 0.9% of Heritage Wealth Management Inc. CA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. CA’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,217,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,087,000 after purchasing an additional 808 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after acquiring an additional 897 shares during the period. Brueske Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 148 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,908,382,000 after purchasing an additional 110,040 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Argus set a $775.00 price objective on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.25, for a total transaction of $552,830.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,103 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,269,825.75. The trade was a 2.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,785,747.13. This trade represents a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 585,605 shares of company stock worth $386,710,448 in the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $626.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.59 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.18, a PEG 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 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 50-day moving average price of $656.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $608.00.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS 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 posted $5.33 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.34%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

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.