Dagco Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Dagco Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 48.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 935 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 306 shares during the period. Dagco Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $547,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,928,185,000 after buying an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.1% during the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,219 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,842,000 after buying an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the third quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,633,000 after buying an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.5% during the third quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 17,048 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $9,704,000 after acquiring an additional 1,480 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $616.16, for a total value of $22,133,083.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,785,747.13. This trade represents a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 451,119 shares of company stock worth $304,709,239 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on META. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $790.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $701.38.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $543.57 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick 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 22.72, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $628.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $609.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. 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 was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s 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.