Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC Acquires 468 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 15.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,426 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 468 shares during the period. Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,213,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of META. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,468 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $520,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC now owns 730 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $258,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,602 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $567,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Courier Capital LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Courier Capital LLC now owns 1,843 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $652,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.1% during the third quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 3,013 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $905,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $3,803,278.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 18,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,723,496.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $3,803,278.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 18,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,723,496.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total value of $239,134.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 79,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,015,070.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,504,435 shares of company stock valued at $703,629,367 over the last three months. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $375.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Wolfe Research raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $430.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $536.00 to $609.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $496.35.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.7 %

NASDAQ META traded down $8.28 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $485.58. The company had a trading volume of 15,029,095 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,905,725. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $202.54 and a 1-year high of $523.57. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $464.84 and a 200 day moving average of $375.30.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.00 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.42%.

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.