McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC Makes New Investment in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 350 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $616.16, for a total transaction of $22,133,083.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $604.54, for a total transaction of $547,108.70. Following the sale, the insider now owns 31,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,804,216.70. This represents a 2.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 495,269 shares of company stock worth $300,888,396. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $612.77 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $370.95 and a 1 year high of $638.40. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $597.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $557.77. The company has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.86, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19. 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 earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $675.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of 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 given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $650.05.

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.