Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Purchases 628 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 13.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,344 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 628 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,892,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 183,244,796 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $55,011,920,000 after purchasing an additional 1,733,182 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,890,950,000 after buying an additional 1,184,978 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.3% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,003,927 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,906,009,000 after buying an additional 946,871 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,143,462 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,945,799,000 after buying an additional 111,735 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total value of $245,578.20. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,089 shares in the company, valued at $3,552,865.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total transaction of $245,578.20. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,089 shares in the company, valued at $3,552,865.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 552 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.00, for a total transaction of $256,128.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 34,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,853,952. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,368,244 shares of company stock worth $657,034,449. 14.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.1 %

META traded up $0.61 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $496.71. The company had a trading volume of 6,291,527 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,983,236. The stock has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.30, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $495.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $402.50. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $207.13 and a 52 week high of $531.49. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.00 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 EPS 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on META. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $520.28.

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.