Tradewinds LLC. Invests $489,000 in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Tradewinds LLC. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 835 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $489,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,087,000 after acquiring an additional 808 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $866,000 after buying an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,908,382,000 after buying an additional 110,040 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $576.36 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $654.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $610.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS 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 quarter last year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $595.00, for a total value of $547,995.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,649,280. This represents a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 583,505 shares of company stock worth $385,495,911. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on META shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark raised Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.55.

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.