Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA Reduces Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA cut its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 38.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 745 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 465 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $436,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $61,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total value of $232,424.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,018,473.83. This represents a 2.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 810,217 shares of company stock valued at $523,808,864 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Arete Research raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued 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, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $703.77 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.78 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $644.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $588.38. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend 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.