Colonial Trust Advisors Has $10.80 Million Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Colonial Trust Advisors grew its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,439 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 74 shares during the quarter. Colonial Trust Advisors’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $10,796,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Finally, Conquis Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $604.54, for a total transaction of $547,108.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 31,105 shares in the company, valued at $18,804,216.70. This represents a 2.83 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total transaction of $296,813.44. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 5,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. This represents a 9.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 499,507 shares of company stock worth $334,165,387 in the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. DA Davidson boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Guggenheim reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 target price (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $708.55.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $585.77 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $634.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $609.40. The stock has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results 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 return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

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.