Davidson Trust Co. Acquires Shares of 740 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Davidson Trust Co. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 740 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $262,000.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WoodTrust Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 1,547 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $548,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners now owns 4,566 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,616,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,468 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $520,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Edge Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC now owns 730 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $258,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 736 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $260,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of several research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $385.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $519.53.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded down $17.94 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $483.86. The stock had a trading volume of 11,407,679 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,946,234. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67. The company has a market cap of $1.23 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $207.13 and a 12-month high of $531.49. The company’s 50 day moving average is $494.29 and its 200-day moving average is $397.43.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.00 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 37,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,853,183.67. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 37,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,853,183.67. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total transaction of $253,697.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 7,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,924,027.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,421,182 shares of company stock worth $677,574,550 in the last quarter. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.