ERn Financial LLC Acquires 278 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

ERn Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 12.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,426 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 278 shares during the period. ERn Financial LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,421,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 35.1% during the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 27,272 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,089 shares during the last quarter. Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at about $352,000. Angeles Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 31.5% during the second quarter. Angeles Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,819 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,430,000 after purchasing an additional 1,154 shares during the last quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 11,972 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,037,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Waycross Partners LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Waycross Partners LLC now owns 64,066 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $32,303,000 after buying an additional 5,012 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $670.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Two equities research 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $650.05.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $574.70, for a total value of $520,103.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,387 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,612,808.90. This represents a 2.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 496,174 shares of company stock worth $301,408,499 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ META opened at $611.30 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.54 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $595.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $555.25. 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 debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its 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 net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.33%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

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.