Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Acquires 649 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 28,244 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 649 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $16,537,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Cordant Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Bear Mountain Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $70,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on META. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 target price (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.9 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $607.60 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.54 trillion, a price-to-earnings 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. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $658.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $602.61.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 prior year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend 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 payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 22,035 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.63, for a total transaction of $13,631,512.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.56, for a total transaction of $260,008.28. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 18,340 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,546,130.40. This represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 690,689 shares of company stock worth $451,269,409 in the last 90 days. 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.