Opinicus Capital Inc. Buys Shares of 2,504 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Opinicus Capital Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,504 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $886,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC now owns 2,114 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Goldstein Advisors LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 75.0% in the 3rd quarter. Goldstein Advisors LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $390,000 after purchasing an additional 557 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 14.7% in the 3rd quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 3,019 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $906,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 7,008 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,104,000 after purchasing an additional 1,181 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Waller Financial Planning Group Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $204,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total value of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,349,148 shares of company stock worth $649,552,559 in the last three months. 13.75% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $530.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock traded up $1.91 on Friday, hitting $443.29. 32,645,619 shares of the 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. The company has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $229.85 and a 1-year high of $531.49. The company’s fifty day moving average is $494.48 and its 200 day moving average is $404.27.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 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.