Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. Grows Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,845 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 149 shares during the quarter. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,007,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 670 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $237,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. WoodTrust Financial Corp boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 1,547 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $548,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners now owns 4,566 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,616,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,468 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $520,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Edge Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC now owns 730 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $258,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of META stock traded down $6.75 during trading on Monday, hitting $436.54. 6,613,584 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,238,789. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.68. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $229.85 and a 52-week high of $531.49. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $494.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $405.39.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 dividend yield of 0.46%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.25, for a total transaction of $287,381.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 37,228 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,288,255. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,277,048 shares of company stock worth $620,679,759. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $555.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.18.

Meta Platforms 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.