Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Stake Boosted by Diversified Trust Co

Diversified Trust Co increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 75,464 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 970 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for 1.1% of Diversified Trust Co’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Diversified Trust Co’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $44,185,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 35.1% during the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 27,272 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,089 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,418,341 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,723,596,000 after buying an additional 148,285 shares during the period. Range Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.3% during the second quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 4,083 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,059,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the second quarter. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,849 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,453,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Impact Partnership Wealth LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 74.2% in the second quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 2,076 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,047,000 after purchasing an additional 884 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META traded down $12.20 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $618.00. The stock had a trading volume of 5,124,596 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,865,771. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $352.05 and a 12 month high of $638.40. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $590.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $550.47. The firm has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on META. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Wolfe Research upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Roth Mkm increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $675.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $603.98, for a total value of $21,695,565.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total value of $4,038,190.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 38,695 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,416,908.60. The trade was a 15.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 361,640 shares of company stock valued at $219,037,690. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.