Central Bank & Trust Co. Reduces Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Central Bank & Trust Co. lessened its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 21,130 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 989 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.9% of Central Bank & Trust Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Central Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $12,372,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of META. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth approximately $49,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $623.50 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $598.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $558.76. The company has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $382.08 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $574.16, for a total value of $237,128.08. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,147,531.12. This trade represents a 3.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $626.80, for a total transaction of $22,515,282.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 567,111 shares of company stock worth $345,453,784 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $652.98.

About Meta Platforms

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.