Westmount Partners LLC Has $3.31 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Westmount Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 13.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,651 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 656 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 1.0% of Westmount Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Westmount Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,309,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of META. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total value of $4,038,190.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 38,695 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,416,908.60. This represents a 15.86 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $611.10, for a total value of $21,951,323.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 411,357 shares of company stock valued at $249,545,428 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded down $8.91 during trading on Monday, reaching $606.95. 6,896,422 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,402,099. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $358.61 and a 1-year high of $638.40. The company has a market cap of $1.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.59, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $593.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $553.55.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wedbush raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $650.05.

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.