CoreFirst Bank & Trust Buys Shares of 137 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

CoreFirst Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 137 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $80,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Napean Trading & Investment Co Singapore PTE Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. Napean Trading & Investment Co Singapore PTE Ltd now owns 41,440 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $24,264,000 after acquiring an additional 3,139 shares in the last quarter. Grantvest Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $677,000. Lynx Investment Advisory boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory now owns 1,794 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,051,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. Sequent Planning LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Sequent Planning LLC now owns 561 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the period. Finally, Interchange Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,454 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,777,000 after buying an additional 259 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.25, for a total transaction of $552,830.25. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 32,103 shares in the company, valued at $19,269,825.75. This trade represents a 2.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08. Following the completion of 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 quarter, insiders sold 585,605 shares of company stock worth $386,710,448. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META opened at $626.31 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $1.59 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.18, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $656.24 and its 200 day moving average price is $608.00.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter last year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Bank of America boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 target price (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

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.