Graney & King LLC Invests $703,000 in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Graney & King LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 1,200 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $703,000. Meta Platforms makes up about 0.5% of Graney & King LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th largest position.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,311 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.21, for a total transaction of $1,387,085.31. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares in the company, valued at $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 586,213 shares of company stock valued at $387,084,349. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on META. Argus set a $775.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $610.98 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $656.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $608.02. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. 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 company has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.54, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.