Legal Advantage Investments Inc. Decreases Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Legal Advantage Investments Inc. lowered its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,500 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.7% of Legal Advantage Investments Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Legal Advantage Investments Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,220,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 35.1% during the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 27,272 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,751,000 after buying an additional 7,089 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 1,938,574 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $977,468,000 after buying an additional 7,539 shares during the last quarter. Blankinship & Foster LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $352,000. Unisphere Establishment boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 235.0% during the 2nd quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 33,500 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $16,891,000 after buying an additional 23,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wick Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.1% during the 2nd quarter. Wick Capital Partners LLC now owns 598 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $302,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of several research reports. JMP Securities upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Raymond James upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment 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 issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.1 %

META opened at $636.45 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $385.66 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The business has a 50-day moving average of $600.06 and a 200-day moving average of $559.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The company has a market capitalization of $1.61 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,901,598. This trade represents a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 568,016 shares of company stock valued at $346,031,180. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.