Centric Wealth Management Boosts Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Centric Wealth Management grew its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 11.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 987 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the period. Centric Wealth Management’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $349,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $159,841,000 after buying an additional 32,423 shares during the period. Bank of Stockton increased its stake 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 worth $1,819,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Signify Wealth purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $79,212,000 after purchasing an additional 4,025 shares during the period. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total value of $305,370.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 38,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 34,398 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.69, for a total value of $16,156,396.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,223,416 shares of company stock worth $597,392,856. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $562.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $535.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.80.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META traded up $3.97 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $472.21. The stock had a trading volume of 9,105,946 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,190,977. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $230.72 and a 52 week high of $531.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.21. The company’s fifty day moving average is $490.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $411.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.68.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.1 EPS for the current year.

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.