Calton & Associates Inc. Sells 570 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Calton & Associates Inc. reduced its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 46.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 664 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 570 shares during the period. Calton & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $389,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Lindenwold Advisors INC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 5,918 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,388,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $625,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 2,680 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,569,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the third quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,841 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,199,000 after buying an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the third quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,787 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,595,000 after buying an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $696.39, for a total value of $9,035,660.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 210,971 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $146,918,094.69. This represents a 5.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total value of $602,730.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,510,470. This represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 673,878 shares of company stock valued at $416,269,904. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.2 %

META stock opened at $697.46 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.76 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.20. 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 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $710.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $616.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $568.60.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 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 company earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 25.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $710.83.

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.