Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC lessened its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,721 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 156 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 2.3% of Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,935,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of META. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $27,470,870,000 after purchasing an additional 698,884 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,266,531,000 after acquiring an additional 263,063 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after acquiring an additional 118,298 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,447,975,000 after acquiring an additional 9,500,444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,101,602,000 after purchasing an additional 186,728 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.2 %

META opened at $612.77 on Monday. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $596.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $557.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $370.95 and a 1-year high of $638.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The company 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 22.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total transaction of $22,746,973.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 496,174 shares of company stock worth $301,408,499 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of several research reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $650.05.

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.