Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 42 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,410 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 42 shares during the period. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $853,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Mizuho raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. JMP Securities lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Wolfe Research upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $700.00 price target (up previously from $680.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $647.49 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.50, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $385.66 and a 1-year high of $652.00. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $601.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $560.33. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The business 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%. On average, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $2,918,698.12. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 8,565 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,943,375.40. This trade represents a 37.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,901,598. This trade represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 568,016 shares of company stock worth $346,031,180. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.