Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Bought by Pittenger & Anderson Inc.

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 400.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 30,070 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,065 shares during the quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $10,644,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of META. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $159,841,000 after acquiring an additional 32,423 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Stockton increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Signify Wealth purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $79,212,000 after acquiring an additional 4,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,880,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on META. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $535.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Citigroup dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $570.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Roth Mkm raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.18.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total value of $239,134.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 79,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,015,070.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total value of $239,134.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 79,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,015,070.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.25, for a total value of $287,381.25. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,228 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,288,255. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,349,148 shares of company stock valued at $649,552,559 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock traded up $0.07 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $441.45. 24,576,922 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,276,223. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $495.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $403.40. The company has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.21, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $229.85 and a 12-month high of $531.49.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.37% and a net margin of 32.06%. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

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.