Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC Sells 142 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC cut its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 21,867 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 142 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.7% of Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $12,803,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of META. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $49,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Roth Mkm increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $730.00 to $720.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Two 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $654.20.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.70, for a total value of $511,497.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,360,833.70. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total transaction of $23,160,423.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 602,612 shares of company stock valued at $368,414,542. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.2 %

META stock opened at $674.33 on Wednesday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $387.10 and a fifty-two week high of $682.58. The business has a 50-day moving average of $606.30 and a 200-day moving average of $562.78.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date 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.