Smith & Howard Wealth Management LLC Has $429,000 Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Smith & Howard Wealth Management LLC decreased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 12.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 732 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Smith & Howard Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $429,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 22.2% during the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,188,000 after acquiring an additional 1,011 shares during the period. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 22,196 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $12,706,000 after acquiring an additional 1,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apollon Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,331 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $762,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Pivotal Research increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 price target (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $719.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total transaction of $243,323.08. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. This represents a 2.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 690,689 shares of company stock valued at $451,269,409. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $607.60 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The company has a 50 day moving average of $658.01 and a 200-day moving average of $603.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $1.54 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.40, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.