Calton & Associates Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Calton & Associates Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 54.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,369 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,610 shares during the period. Calton & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $665,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 24.2% in the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 835,972 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $295,901,000 after acquiring an additional 163,067 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 3,576,285 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,265,862,000 after acquiring an additional 51,900 shares during the last quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 94.4% in the 4th quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC now owns 8,349 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,955,000 after acquiring an additional 4,054 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $159,841,000 after buying an additional 32,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Voyager Global Management LP raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 37.3% during the 4th quarter. Voyager Global Management LP now owns 515,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $182,289,000 after buying an additional 140,000 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $475.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $545.00 target price (down from $600.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Roth Mkm boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $609.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.05.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $486.75, for a total value of $238,507.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,559 shares in the company, valued at $4,166,093.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $486.75, for a total value of $238,507.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,559 shares in the company, valued at $4,166,093.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 31,465 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.49, for a total transaction of $15,464,732.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 233,512 shares of company stock worth $113,597,536 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $504.22 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.68. The company’s 50-day moving average is $480.00 and its 200 day moving average is $453.93. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $274.38 and a 1-year high of $531.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.16 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.49%.

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.