Montag & Caldwell LLC Buys 48 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Montag & Caldwell LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,676 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Montag & Caldwell LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $981,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Conquis Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $543.39, for a total value of $500,462.19. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,340 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,943,062.60. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $613.85, for a total transaction of $22,050,105.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 450,214 shares of company stock worth $304,162,130 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $531.48 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The company has a market cap of $1.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.22, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $624.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $609.15.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Pivotal Research boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $692.93.

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.