Lynch & Associates IN Boosts Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Lynch & Associates IN raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,834 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Lynch & Associates IN’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,074,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth about $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ:META traded up $5.14 on Friday, hitting $615.86. 19,216,416 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,336,346. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $592.65 and a 200-day moving average of $552.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $358.61 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.01, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total transaction of $5,166,159.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,776,261.56. This represents a 14.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $611.10, for a total transaction of $21,951,323.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 410,536 shares of company stock worth $249,024,275. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Two research 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $646.90.

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.