Morling Financial Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Morling Financial Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 18.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,130 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,421 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 1.8% of Morling Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position. Morling Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,170,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $159,841,000 after purchasing an additional 32,423 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Stockton lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Signify Wealth purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $79,212,000 after purchasing an additional 4,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,880,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on META. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $375.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $520.28.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total transaction of $245,578.20. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,552,865.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total transaction of $245,578.20. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,552,865.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.59, for a total value of $291,675.15. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 37,813 shares in the company, valued at $18,853,183.67. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,368,244 shares of company stock worth $657,034,449. 14.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META traded down $2.60 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $493.50. 36,273,029 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,341,254. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $495.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $403.14. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $207.13 and a 12 month high of $531.49. The stock has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.00 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

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.