Cullen Investment Group LTD. Trims Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,682 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 75 shares during the period. Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,084,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, October 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $580.65, for a total value of $239,808.45. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,456,828. The trade was a 3.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 423,427 shares of company stock valued at $256,996,450. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $641.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Pivotal Research increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Roth Mkm increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wedbush increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $650.05.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $594.25 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $595.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $554.81. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $358.61 and a 52-week high of $638.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders 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 0.34%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

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.