Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Position Increased by Grove Bank & Trust

Grove Bank & Trust raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,357 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 431 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,137,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Lindenwold Advisors INC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 5,918 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,388,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $625,000 after buying an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 2,680 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,569,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the period. Central Valley Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the third quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC now owns 5,714 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,271,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the third quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,841 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,199,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $616.46 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $598.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $558.31. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $381.16 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The company has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $641.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Barclays raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Mizuho upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $651.27.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 14,746 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.53, for a total value of $8,162,353.38. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total value of $4,038,190.08. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares in the company, valued at $21,416,908.60. The trade was a 15.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 531,190 shares of company stock valued at $322,938,501 over the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company 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.