Coign Capital Advisors LLC Acquires New Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Coign Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 2,394 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,402,000. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.3% of Coign Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest holding.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in META. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $59,000. Finally, Conquis Financial LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Arete Research raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Wolfe Research boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Benchmark upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $704.62.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $606.77, for a total value of $250,596.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 16,688 shares in the company, valued at $10,125,777.76. This trade represents a 2.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 902 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $713.32, for a total value of $643,414.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 27,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,607,740.16. This trade represents a 3.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 487,453 shares of company stock valued at $326,680,904 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 6.7 %

META opened at $546.29 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $631.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $609.28. 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 company has a market cap of $1.38 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

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.