Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. Sells 164 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. trimmed its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,304 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 164 shares during the quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,585,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. WoodTrust Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 1,547 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $548,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners now owns 4,566 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,616,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,468 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $520,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC now owns 730 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $258,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 736 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $392.36, for a total value of $7,722,037.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total transaction of $239,134.70. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 79,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,015,070.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $392.36, for a total transaction of $7,722,037.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,421,182 shares of company stock valued at $677,574,550 over the last ninety days. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on META. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, March 18th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given 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, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $519.53.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META traded down $20.73 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $481.07. The company had a trading volume of 25,215,364 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,967,675. The firm has a market cap of $1.23 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.29, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a fifty day moving average of $494.55 and a 200-day moving average of $398.64. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $207.13 and a 12 month high of $531.49. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 13.42%.

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.