Axxcess Wealth Management LLC Sells 3,461 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Axxcess Wealth Management LLC decreased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 6.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 46,939 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 3,461 shares during the period. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $27,484,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,470,870,000 after purchasing an additional 698,884 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,266,531,000 after buying an additional 263,063 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,344,552,000 after buying an additional 424,201 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,101,602,000 after acquiring an additional 186,728 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 110,040 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Arete Research upgraded Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Scotiabank increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $590.00, for a total value of $243,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,576,930. This represents a 2.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 622,844 shares of company stock valued at $409,212,161 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $586.00 on Friday. 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 market cap of $1.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.50, a P/E/G 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 business’s 50-day moving average price is $655.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $604.56.

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

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.36%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

About Meta Platforms

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.