Schear Investment Advisers LLC Has $1.50 Million Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Schear Investment Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,244 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.5% of Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,502,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 183,244,796 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $55,011,920,000 after acquiring an additional 1,733,182 shares during the period. 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 valued at $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,890,950,000 after buying an additional 1,184,978 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,223,148,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.3% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,003,927 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,906,009,000 after buying an additional 946,871 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $388.90, for a total value of $3,500,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 79,935 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,086,721.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 9,000 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $388.90, for a total transaction of $3,500,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 79,935 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,086,721.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $392.36, for a total value of $7,722,037.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,421,182 shares of company stock worth $677,574,550 in the last three months. Company insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 3.8 %

Shares of META stock traded down $18.85 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $482.95. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 17,012,629 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,044,914. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $494.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $397.43. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $207.13 and a 52 week high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67. The company has a market cap of $1.23 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The firm 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.00 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on META. Raymond James boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. JMP Securities boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $410.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $385.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $519.53.

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.