SouthState Corp Acquires 1,285 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

SouthState Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,554 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 1,285 shares during the quarter. SouthState Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,107,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Gray Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Gray Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,118 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $654,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Eaton Financial Holdings Company LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Eaton Financial Holdings Company LLC now owns 3,757 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,199,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the period. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA now owns 20,919 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,248,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the period. RS Crum Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. RS Crum Inc. now owns 1,072 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $627,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Finally, SlateStone Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 7,037 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,120,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,514 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. This trade represents a 2.30 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 10,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $601.54, for a total transaction of $6,075,554.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 632,023 shares of company stock worth $414,734,884 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price target (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.3 %

META stock opened at $584.06 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $656.27 and its 200 day moving average is $604.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

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

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend 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.