Citizens & Northern Corp Sells 149 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Citizens & Northern Corp trimmed its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,117 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 149 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises 1.5% of Citizens & Northern Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Citizens & Northern Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,338,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $61,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective 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. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $719.26.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.49, for a total value of $238,503.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,068,173.34. This represents a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. This trade represents a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 812,422 shares of company stock valued at $525,534,818 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.3 %

META opened at $668.13 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.69 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.93, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $647.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $593.08.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. 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. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

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.