First Merchants Corp boosted its holdings in Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) by 63.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,167 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 843 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Facebook were worth $444,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Abundance Wealth Counselors boosted its stake in Facebook by 26.7% in the 4th quarter. Abundance Wealth Counselors now owns 1,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $321,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Charter Research & Investment Group Inc. boosted its stake in Facebook by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Charter Research & Investment Group Inc. now owns 9,596 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,970,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Rice Partnership LLC boosted its stake in Facebook by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Rice Partnership LLC now owns 4,545 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $933,000 after buying an additional 171 shares during the last quarter. First American Trust FSB boosted its stake in Facebook by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. First American Trust FSB now owns 18,511 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,799,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust acquired a new stake in Facebook in the 4th quarter worth about $131,000. 63.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on FB shares. Barclays set a $260.00 price objective on Facebook and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Pivotal Research lowered Facebook from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $245.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Facebook in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $240.00 price objective on shares of Facebook in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Facebook in a research note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, forty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Facebook has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $246.29.
Shares of Facebook stock traded up $1.85 during trading on Monday, hitting $203.76. The stock had a trading volume of 8,622,702 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,397,070. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 4.66 and a quick ratio of 4.66. The firm has a market cap of $575.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.64, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a fifty day moving average of $211.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $195.42. Facebook, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $145.70 and a fifty-two week high of $224.20.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $2.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $2.53 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $21.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.90 billion. Facebook had a return on equity of 20.59% and a net margin of 26.15%. The company’s revenue was up 24.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.38 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Facebook, Inc. will post 9.3 earnings per share for the current year.
In other news, CAO Susan J.S. Taylor sold 1,133 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.58, for a total transaction of $224,991.14. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $298,862.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 122,855 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.22, for a total value of $23,615,188.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 267,358 shares of company stock worth $51,471,739 over the last ninety days. 14.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.
About Facebook
Facebook, Inc provides various products to connect and share through mobile devices, personal computers, and other surfaces worldwide. The company’s products include Facebook that enables people to connect, share, discover, and communicate with each other on mobile devices and personal computers; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and messages; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, groups, and businesses across platforms and devices; and WhatsApp, a messaging application for use by people and businesses to communicate in a private way.
