Kentucky Trust Co Acquires New Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Kentucky Trust Co acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 926 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $542,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in META. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,087,000 after purchasing an additional 808 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during 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. LS Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.4% in the 3rd quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,686,000 after acquiring an additional 6,155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apollon Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $866,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the subject of several analyst reports. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $935.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a 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 report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $715.91 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $643.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $587.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 EPS 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 paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. 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 payout ratio is presently 8.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $565.30, for a total transaction of $511,596.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 37,790 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,362,687. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $734.49, for a total transaction of $14,445,949.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 770,701 shares of company stock valued at $495,357,621. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.