Capital City Trust Co. FL Has $3.92 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Capital City Trust Co. FL grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,687 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 541 shares during the quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,915,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 32.5% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $261,680,000 after buying an additional 112,047 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $946,000 after buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. TCP Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.6% in the third quarter. TCP Asset Management LLC now owns 510 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 5.9% in the third quarter. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 4,188 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,397,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the period. Finally, Taylor & Morgan Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $222,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the subject of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Benchmark upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,466,769.02. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,422,186.45. The trade was a 18.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 813,951 shares of company stock valued at $526,565,232. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $668.20 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.69 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $653.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $596.12. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 last year, the business posted $5.33 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

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.