Keystone Financial Services Sells 30 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Keystone Financial Services cut its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,771 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 30 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 0.8% of Keystone Financial Services’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Keystone Financial Services’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,208,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of META. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,087,000 after buying an additional 808 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $82,314,000 after buying an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,915,451,000 after buying an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.4% in the third quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,686,000 after buying an additional 6,155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apollon Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $866,000 after buying an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $703.21, for a total value of $13,830,734.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,422,186.45. This represents a 18.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 810,217 shares of company stock valued at $523,808,864 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on META. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 price target (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $683.62 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $647.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $591.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.73 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.36%.

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.