NBT Bank N A NY Increases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

NBT Bank N A NY lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,177 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 88 shares during the quarter. NBT Bank N A NY’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,788,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,087,000 after buying an additional 808 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $82,314,000 after acquiring an additional 897 shares during the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $459,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after purchasing an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apollon Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $866,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on META. DA Davidson boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Arete Research raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned 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 data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $624.85, for a total value of $22,445,236.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.56, for a total value of $260,008.28. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 18,340 shares in the company, valued at $11,546,130.40. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 690,689 shares of company stock worth $451,269,409 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $607.60 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $658.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $602.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.54 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. 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.