Congress Wealth Management LLC DE Trims Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Congress Wealth Management LLC DE reduced its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 19.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 111,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 26,066 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises 0.9% of Congress Wealth Management LLC DE’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $65,115,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Seelaus Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $960,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. Meredith Wealth Planning lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Stephens Consulting LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 317 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $186,000 after buying an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VeraBank N.A. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. VeraBank N.A. now owns 1,954 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 16 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.50, for a total transaction of $369,360.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,523,445. This represents a 7.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.25, for a total value of $552,830.25. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 32,103 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,269,825.75. The trade was a 2.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 585,605 shares of company stock valued at $386,710,448. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Two research 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. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 3.9 %

META opened at $619.55 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.90, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50 day moving average of $655.60 and a 200-day moving average of $607.11.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly 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 period last year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business 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 $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 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.