Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. Acquires New Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,350 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $478,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stone House Investment Management LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 625.0% in the third quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 87 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Gilfoyle & Co LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 80.4% in the fourth quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 101 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 68.9% in the third quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 103 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the period. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 65.2% in the third quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 109 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded up $4.36 on Wednesday, hitting $472.60. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 11,651,678 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,223,398. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 2.68. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $230.72 and a 1 year high of $531.49. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $490.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $411.78. The company has a market capitalization of $1.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total value of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $431.05, for a total value of $252,164.25. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,643 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,794,965.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders 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 research firms have recently weighed in on META. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $535.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Raymond James dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $525.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $509.80.

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.