Charles Schwab Trust Co Raises Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Charles Schwab Trust Co boosted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 16.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,289 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Trust Co’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $755,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. JMP Securities increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $730.00 to $720.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $636.45 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $600.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $559.30. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $385.66 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The company has a market capitalization of $1.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 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 announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total value of $559,290.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 30,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,663,600. The trade was a 2.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total transaction of $255,234.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 16,275 shares in the company, valued at $10,057,950. This represents a 2.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 568,016 shares of company stock valued at $346,031,180. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.