859 Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Bought by Fonville Wealth Management LLC

Fonville Wealth Management LLC 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 859 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $304,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,223,148,000. Morgan Stanley purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,072,543,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $1,796,633,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $1,731,491,000. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $12.66 during trading on Friday, reaching $489.14. 7,468,667 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,915,494. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $494.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $397.43. The stock has a market cap of $1.25 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.93, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $207.13 and a 12-month high of $531.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The company’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.00 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.42%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Raymond James upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. KeyCorp increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $465.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $519.53.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $498.59, for a total transaction of $291,675.15. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,853,183.67. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $498.59, for a total transaction of $291,675.15. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,853,183.67. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total value of $253,697.50. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 7,579 shares in the company, valued at $3,924,027.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,421,182 shares of company stock worth $677,574,550 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

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.