Mach 1 Financial Group LLC Has $1.30 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Mach 1 Financial Group LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 10.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,219 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 203 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 2.3% of Mach 1 Financial Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Mach 1 Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,299,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its stake in 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 valued at $946,000 after buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position 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 worth $1,928,185,000 after purchasing an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 269 shares in the last quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the third quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,633,000 after buying an additional 264 shares during the period. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd raised its position in 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 valued at $9,704,000 after buying an additional 1,480 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently 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 on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Pivotal Research upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Two investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $684.10.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $626.80, for a total value of $22,515,282.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total value of $255,234.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 16,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,057,950. This trade represents a 2.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 379,901 shares of company stock valued at $260,806,516. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $501.48 on Friday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $1.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.96, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $608.14 and its 200-day moving average is $607.04. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91.

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, 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 prior year, the business posted $5.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.