Triangle Securities Wealth Management Has $2.74 Million Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Triangle Securities Wealth Management cut its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,673 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 170 shares during the quarter. Triangle Securities Wealth Management’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,736,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Fiera Capital Corp grew its position in Meta Platforms by 35.1% in the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 27,272 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,089 shares in the last quarter. Elite Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 16.8% in the second quarter. Elite Wealth Management Inc. now owns 27,736 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,985,000 after purchasing an additional 3,981 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 68.5% during the second quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 99,633 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $50,237,000 after buying an additional 40,504 shares during the last quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 12.3% during the 2nd quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 165,105 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $83,250,000 after purchasing an additional 18,130 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.9% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 265,756 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $133,999,000 after buying an additional 14,831 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $631.55, for a total value of $571,552.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,215,915.50. This trade represents a 2.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $616.16, for a total transaction of $22,133,083.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 495,269 shares of company stock valued at $300,888,396. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on META. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $641.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JMP Securities raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $650.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $612.77 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $370.95 and a one year high of $638.40. 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 has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $597.37 and a 200-day moving average of $557.77.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Meta Platforms Company 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.