Transcend Capital Advisors LLC Buys 123 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Transcend Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,909 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 123 shares during the period. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,693,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,733,182 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position 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 worth $10,890,950,000 after purchasing an additional 1,184,978 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position 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 worth $6,906,009,000 after purchasing an additional 946,871 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in 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 purchasing an additional 111,735 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on META shares. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $562.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $540.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. KeyCorp cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $555.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. 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, April 16th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $520.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 6,500 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total transaction of $2,600,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 68,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,574,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock valued at $649,552,559. Insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded up $1.91 during trading on Friday, hitting $443.29. 32,645,619 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,233,678. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.67. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $229.85 and a 1 year high of $531.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $494.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $404.27.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. As a group, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.33 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

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.